Category: 7. Science

Now, in an article published in Light: Science & Applications, researchers from The University of Osaka, together with collaborating institutions, have unveiled a cryo-optical microscopy technique that take a high-resolution, quantitatively accurate snapshot at a precisely selected timepoint in dynamic cellular activity. Capturing fast dynamic cellular events with spatial detail and quantifiability has been a major challenge owing to a fundamental trade-off between temporal resolution and the ‘photon budget’, that is, how much light can be collected for the image. With limited photons and only dim, noisy images, important features in both space and time become lost in the noise.

“Instead of chasing speed in imaging, we decided to freeze the entire scene,” explains one of the lead authors Kosuke Tsuji. “We developed a special sample-freezing chamber to combine the advantages of live-cell and cryo-fixation microscopy. By rapidly freezing live cells under the optical microscope, we could observe a frozen snapshot of the cellular dynamics at high resolutions.”

For instance, the team froze calcium ion wave propagation in live heart-muscle cells. The intricately detailed frozen wave was then observed in three dimensions using a super-resolution technique that cannot normally observe fast cellular dynamics due to its slow imaging acquisition speed.

“This research began with a bold shift in perspective: to arrest dynamic cellular processes during optical imaging rather than struggle to track them in motion. We believe this will serve as a powerful foundational technique, offering new insights across life-science and medical research,” says senior author Katsumasa Fujita. One of the lead authors, Masahito Yamanaka, adds “Our technique preserves both spatial and temporal features of live cells with instantaneous freezing, making it possible to observe their states in detail. While cells are immobilized, we can take the opportunity to perform highly accurate quantitative measurements with a variety of optical microscopy tools.”

The researchers also demonstrated how this technique improves quantification accuracy. By freezing cells labeled with a fluorescent calcium ion probe, they were able to use exposure times 1000 times longer than practical in live-cell imaging, substantially increasing the measurement accuracy.

To capture transient biological events at precisely defined moments, the researcher integrated an electrically triggered cryogen injection system. With UV light stimulation to induce calcium ion waves, this system enabled freezing of the calcium ion waves at a specific time point after the initiation of the event, with 10 ms precision. This allowed the team to arrest transient biological processes with unprecedented temporal accuracy.

Finally, the team tuned their attention to combining different imaging techniques, which are often difficult to align in time. By the near-instantaneous freezing of samples, multiple imaging modalities can now be applied sequentially without worrying about temporal mismatch. In their study, the team combined spontaneous Raman microscopy and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy on the same cryofixed cells. This allowed them to view intricate cellular information from a number of perspectives at the exact same point in time.

This innovation opens new avenues for observing fast, transient cellular events, providing researchers with a powerful tool to explore the mechanisms underlying dynamic biological processes.

Fast animals get plenty of attention for their incredible feats of speed. But what about animals that move at a slower pace?

“We definitely are programmed to think that speed is good,” said James Maclaine, senior curator of fish at the Natural History Museum in London. “For a lot of animals, that doesn’t make any sense to them at all.”

For centuries, humans have gazed into the night sky, wondering what lies beyond the planets we know. Each new discovery in the Solar System reshapes our sense of place in the cosmos.

Now, astronomers are once again pointing to the possibility of an unseen world – one that may be orbiting far beyond Neptune. This hypothetical body has been given the tentative name “Planet Y.”

The idea of hidden planets is not new. Astronomers once speculated about Planet X, which was believed to be seven times Earth’s mass and orbiting 50 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

That idea was mostly debunked. Later came Planet Nine, a still-viable candidate about 10 times Earth’s mass, at least 300 times farther from the Sun. Now, evidence is mounting for yet another contender.

Warped orbits suggest hidden planet

Amir Siraj at Princeton University and his colleagues suggest a new possibility. They noticed a warping effect in the orbits of some Kuiper belt objects, a distant region filled with icy remnants, including Pluto.

“If that warp is real, the simplest explanation is an undiscovered inclined planet,” Siraj said.

This potential world would be smaller than Earth but larger than Mercury, orbiting 100 to 200 times farther from the Sun than Earth does. Its gravity seems to nudge nearby objects about 15 degrees out of the solar system’s flat plane, like ripples disturbing a lake’s surface.

“Our signal is modest, but credible,” Siraj said, estimating just a two to four percent chance of being a fluke. Early evidence for Planet Nine carried similar odds, though the signatures differ.

Planet Nine would tug objects toward it, while this “Planet Y” appears to tilt orbits out of alignment. In theory, both worlds could exist at once.

Unexplained Kuiper belt tilt

The new research shows that if no hidden planets exist, the average plane of the Kuiper belt should align with the invariable plane of the solar system.

However, astronomers now detect a clear warp between 80 and 200 astronomical units (AU).

This tilt is unlikely to be primordial, since natural orbital precession would erase it in less than 100 million years. For the warp to persist, something must be maintaining it – such as the gravity of a hidden planet.

Possible Planet Y scenarios

Jonti Horner at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia sees this as possible.

“It plays into the fact that we simply don’t know what’s out there. It’s only in the last couple of decades that we’ve really started to explore the space beyond Neptune,” he said.

Astronomers believe such planets might not have formed so far from the Sun. Instead, they could have been scattered outward early in the Solar System’s history. “Scattering seems more likely,” Horner said.

Models support Planet Y theory

Numerical experiments suggest that a planet with a mass between Mercury and Earth, an orbit of roughly 100 to 200 AU, and an inclination greater than 10 degrees could maintain the observed warp.

Lower-mass bodies like Pluto could contribute, but far less effectively. Planets more massive than Earth would cause distortions in nearer regions, making them poor fits for the data.

The proposed Planet Y differs from Planet Nine in both location and influence. Planet Nine, if real, is thought to explain the clustering of orbital paths at great distances. Planet Y, by contrast, would explain why the Kuiper belt’s average plane is warped.

“The signature is different,” Siraj said, emphasizing that both ideas could coexist without contradiction.

Search for hidden worlds continues

The outer solar system is one of astronomy’s greatest frontiers, and the next decade promises breakthroughs.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon begin its 10-year survey, mapping the night sky in unprecedented detail. This facility could spot Planet Y directly or confirm indirect signs of its influence.

“Rubin will rapidly expand the catalog of well-measured trans-Neptunian objects,” Siraj said. If Planet Y exists, “within the survey’s first few years” we may either see it or gather stronger proof of its gravitational effects.

For now, Planet Y remains hypothetical, a hint drawn from subtle orbital patterns. But history shows that careful attention to small irregularities can reveal great discoveries.

From Neptune’s prediction in the 19th century to Pluto’s identification in the 20th, the search for hidden worlds has always reshaped our cosmic understanding. If Planet Y is real, it may soon step from speculation into fact.

The study is published in arXiv.

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The US Space Force’s experimental X-37B spaceplane is back in orbit. The reusable Boeing-built platform launched late on August 21, 2025, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, kicking off its eighth mission in 15 years of operations.

The uncrewed vehicle separated from the rocket’s upper stage as planned and entered low Earth orbit, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the surface. Mission details remain classified, but the US Space Force has confirmed that the spaceplane will test a mix of navigation, communications, and payload-handling technologies.

From rapid turnaround to rapid testing

The launch comes less than six months after the X-37B completed its seventh mission, which ended with a landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 7, 2025. That mission included a first-of-its-kind aerobraking maneuver that allowed the vehicle to change orbit while saving propellant.

This quick turnaround also highlights the X-37B’s growing role as an operationally ready testbed for new military and commercial space technologies.

Bigger payloads, more experiments

For this eighth flight, Boeing has added a redesigned service module that expands the spaceplane’s payload capacity. The upgrade allows the Space Force and its partners, including the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Innovation Unit, to run more complex experiments simultaneously.

Among the payloads are two key technologies. The first is a high-bandwidth laser communications system, part of the US Space Force’s push to link satellites and space assets through resilient, high-speed networks.

The second is a quantum inertial sensor, designed to deliver precise navigation data in GPS-denied environments. If proven reliable in orbit, the technology could eventually support missions in contested orbital zones or even deep-space exploration where GPS signals are unavailable.

A platform that keeps evolving

Since its debut, the X-37B has spent over 4,200 cumulative days in space, returning after every flight for inspection, upgrades, and mission planning. That reusability has made it a critical asset for testing and refining technologies faster than traditional satellite platforms allow.

Each successive mission has offered a glimpse into how the US Space Force sees the future of orbital operations: a mix of reusable platforms, rapid iteration, and resilient systems designed to survive and operate in increasingly contested space.

It had been thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter’s core material could have mixed up the central region of the gas giant, enough to explain its interior today.

But a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests its make-up is actually down to how the growing planet absorbed heavy and light materials as it formed and evolved.

Unlike what scientists once expected, the core of the largest planet in our solar system doesn’t have a sharp boundary but instead gradually blends into the surrounding layers of mostly hydrogen – a structure known as a dilute core.

How this dilute core formed has been a key question among scientists and astronomers ever since NASA’s Juno spacecraft first revealed its existence.

Using cutting-edge supercomputer simulations of planetary impacts, with a new method to improve the simulation’s treatment of mixing between materials, researchers from Durham University, in collaboration with scientists from NASA, SETI, and CENSSS, University of Oslo, tested whether a massive collision could have created Jupiter’s dilute core.

The simulations were run on the DiRAC COSMA supercomputer hosted at Durham University using the state-of-the-art SWIFT open-source software.

The study found that a stable dilute core structure was not produced in any of the simulations conducted, even in those involving impacts under extreme conditions.

Instead, the simulations demonstrate that the dense rock and ice core material displaced by an impact would quickly re-settle, leaving a distinct boundary with the outer layers of hydrogen and helium, rather than forming a smooth transition zone between the two regions.

Reflecting on the findings, lead author of the study Dr Thomas Sandnes, of Durham University, said: “It’s fascinating to explore how a giant planet like Jupiter would respond to one of the most violent events a growing planet can experience.

“We see in our simulations that this kind of impact literally shakes the planet to its core – just not in the right way to explain the interior of Jupiter that we see today.”

Jupiter isn’t the only planet with a dilute core, as scientists have recently found evidence that Saturn has one too.

Dr Luis Teodoro, of the University of Oslo, said: “The fact that Saturn also has a dilute core strengthens the idea that these structures are not the result of rare, extremely high-energy impacts but instead form gradually during the long process of planetary growth and evolution.”

The findings of this study could also help inform scientists’ understanding and interpretation of the many Jupiter- and Saturn-sized exoplanets that have been observed around distant stars. If dilute cores aren’t made by rare and extreme impacts, then perhaps most or all of these planets have comparably complex interiors.

Co-author of the study Dr Jacob Kegerreis said: “Giant impacts are a key part of many planets’ histories, but they can’t explain everything!

“This project also accelerated another step in our development of new ways to simulate these cataclysmic events in ever greater detail, helping us to continue narrowing down how the amazing diversity of worlds we see in the Solar System and beyond came to be.”

After wrapping up its investigation at the contact between clay and olivine-bearing rocks at “Westport,” Perseverance is journeying south once more. Previously, attempts were made to drive uphill to visit a new rock exposure called “Midtoya.” However, a combination of the steep slope and rubbly, rock-strewn soil made drive progress difficult, and after several attempts, the decision was made to return to smoother terrain. Thankfully, the effort wasn’t fruitless, as the rover was able to gather data on new spherule-rich rocks thought to have rolled downhill from “Midtoya,” including the witch hat or helmet-shaped rock “Horneflya,” which has attracted much online interest.

More recently, Perseverance explored a site called “Kerrlaguna” where the steep slopes give way to a field of megaripples: large windblown sand formations up to 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall. The science team chose to perform a mini-campaign to make a detailed study of these features. Why such interest? While often the rover’s attention is focused on studying processes in Mars’ distant past that are recorded in ancient rocks, we still have much to learn about the modern Martian environment.

Almost a decade ago, Perseverance’s forerunner Curiosity studied an active sand dune at “Namib Dune” on the floor of Gale crater, where it took a memorable selfie. However the smaller megaripples — and especially dusty, apparently no longer active ones like at “Kerrlaguna” — are also common across the surface of Mars. These older immobile features could teach us new insights about the role that wind and water play on the modern Martian surface.

After arriving near several of these inactive megaripples, Perseverance performed a series of measurements using its SuperCam, Mastcam-Z, and MEDA science instruments in order to characterize the surrounding environment, the size and chemistry of the sand grains, and any salty crusts that may have developed over time.

Besides furthering our understanding of the Martian environment, documenting these potential resources could help us prepare for the day when astronauts explore the Red Planet and need resources held within Martian soils to help them survive. It is hoped that this investigation at “Kerrlaguna” can provide a practice run for a more comprehensive campaign located at a more extensive field of larger bedforms at “Lac de Charmes,” further along the rover traverse.

Written by Melissa Rice, Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University