Category: 7. Science

The molecules that form the building blocks to life may be far more common in space than once thought, according to researchers from the Max Planck Institute.

Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, reports the detection of over a dozen types of complex organic molecules swimming closely around a protostar in the constellation Orion, suggesting that the chemicals can survive the violent processes that give birth to stars and thus may abound in space, instead of having to wait for a planet with the right conditions to form them.

Two of the most notable organic molecules detected in the system — tentatively, the astronomers stress — are ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile. Both are precursors of the nucleic acids that form DNA and RNA.

“Our finding points to a straight line of chemical enrichment and increasing complexity between interstellar clouds and fully evolved planetary systems,” lead author Abubakar Fadul, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute, said in a statement about the work.

And thus, quoting the researchers’ statement: “this suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread.”

Until now, the assumption has been that most organic molecules would be destroyed when a star system is born from a chilly cloud of collapsing gas called an interstellar cloud. 

When this happens, the protostar undergoes a violent, tumultuous change, blasting out damaging radiation that heats the surrounding gas while pummeling it with powerful shockwaves. This leaves behind a protoplanetary disk that can eventually form little worlds in the star’s orbit. But in the process, this was also believed to “reset” all the progress that’d been made towards seeding the system with chemical building blocks, which wouldn’t start again until the right planet with the ideal conditions came along.

“Now it appears the opposite is true,” study co-author Kamber Schwarz, a fellow astronomer at MPI, said in a statement about the work. “Our results suggest that protoplanetary disks inherit complex molecules from earlier stages, and the formation of complex molecules can continue during the protoplanetary disk stage.”

Complex organic molecules are difficult to detect because they’re typically trapped in shards called icy dust grains, where they first formed. But in the V883 system, the star is still blasting bursts of radiation into space as it feeds on the leftover gas in its disk.

“These outbursts are strong enough to heat the surrounding disk as far as otherwise icy environments, releasing the chemicals we have detected,” Fadul said.

Once liberated, the gases quickly heat up and produce emissions that astronomers can see. The researchers spotted them, fortuitously, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a huge radio telescope in Chile made of 66 separate antennas working in tandem.

Poetically, it appears that a young star’s destructive tendencies are freeing the seeds of life to roam space. If the precursors to life’s building blocks can survive a system’s violent formation, that means their chemical evolution can start way before planet formation begins. In short, it looks like life’s building blocks can form in space, and may be rife throughout the cosmos.

Follow-up observations will need to confirm the detections, but the results have the researchers buzzing.

“Perhaps we also need to look at other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to find even more evolved molecules,” Fadul said. “Who knows what else we might discover?”

More on astronomy: Hubble Snaps Photos of Interstellar Invader

Hot springs in the icy, high-altitude expanses of Ladakh could be holding secrets from the very dawn of life on Earth and may even help in tracing the possible origins of life on Mars, besides providing valuable insights for India’s space exploration programmes.

A team of Indian scientists has made a breakthrough discovery that could not only rewrite our understanding of how life may have originated on Earth but also shed light on how astro-biological processes related to finding bio-signatures of life on other planetary bodies may have occurred.

Till date, Silica-based origin of life theories are proposed globally and role of carbonates, specifically calcium has been unexplored. Prior studies showed calcite, a compound of calcium, can catalyse prebiotic reactions in laboratory settings, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Prebiotic pertains to something existing or occurring before the emergence of life.

Scientists from Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences observed rapid carbonate precipitation in the environment of Puga valley, a high-altitude valley in south-eastern Ladakh that is known for its geothermal activity and hot springs.

The team, comprising Dr Amritpal Singh Chaddha, Dr Sunil Kumar Shukla, Dr Anupam Sharma, Prof MG Thakkar and Dr Kamlesh Kumar hypothesised that the extreme environment of Puga could act as a real-world prebiotic reactor and preservation site, and provide real world evidence of the phenomenon.

An interdisciplinary study, the team analysed the high-altitude hot spring calcium carbonate deposits (travertine) from Puga, situated at approximately 14,500 feet, using a combination of techniques based on inorganic and organic geochemistry including microscopy, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, Raman, x-ray infrared and stable isotope geochemistry.

These revealed preserved amino acid derivatives, formamide, sulphur compounds and fatty acids encapsulated within calcite, supporting its role in concentrating and stabilising organic precursors.

“Empirical evidences suggest that the natural travertine from the Puga Hot Spring in Ladakh can trap and preserve prebiotic organic molecules, highlighting calcium carbonate as a potential natural template for origin-of-life chemistry under extreme Earth-like conditions,” Dr Chaddha, the study’s lead author said in a statement.

The study, published in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, a peer reviewed American journal, provides a plausible mechanism of travertine formation and how organic molecules may have preserved and triggered life where there was presence of high UV in the early Earth environment.

“The findings provide insight into how life may have originated on Earth, aiding future planetary exploration (for example Mars). It could aid to ISROs future space exploration missions where identification of true biosignatures is required for identifying life and its associated biogeochemical process,” the ministry’s statement said.

It also enhances understanding of natural biomolecule preservation mechanisms, which may influence the development of new materials and life-detection technologies in astrobiology and synthetic biology, the statement added.

On its long journey to the outer solar system, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft made a planned detour — and seized a striking photo opportunity. 

In a single frame, the uncrewed Europa Clipper caught Mars alongside both of its tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, as they waltzed through space, all glowing in infrared light. 

The image, presented below, is more than a pretty picture. It offers a rare look at a planetary trio not often seen together, and it provided mission engineers a crucial chance to fine-tune the spacecraft’s thermal camera as it zipped past the Red Planet.

From about 560,000 miles away — more than twice the distance between Earth and the moon — Europa Clipper’s infrared camera snapped 200 individual frames over the course of 20 minutes on Feb. 28. The frames were later stitched together to reveal the glowing heat signatures of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos.

The result is a surreal view: Mars dominates the center, faintly surrounded by image-processing artifacts. At the upper left, Deimos appears as a tiny glowing dot. Closer in is Phobos, Mars’ larger and innermost moon. To make the dim moons visible — each about 250 times fainter than Mars — engineers brightened the image.

Mashable Light Speed

Visible on the planet itself is a dark patch near the top, marking the frigid northern polar cap, where temperatures dip to about -190 degrees Fahrenheit. A circular region shows Elysium Mons, one of Mars’ giant volcanoes.

The Martian moons are rarely seen together, let alone with their host planet. The first time Phobos and Deimos were both caught on camera was in November 2009, when the Mars Express orbiter snagged the unprecedented image, according to the European Space Agency. The portrait, which showcased the duo lined up, one behind the other, took years of planning, precise knowledge of their orbits, and some lucky viewing geometry.

Scientists know relatively little about Phobos and Deimos, two of the smallest known moons in the solar system. Both are “blacker than coal and look like battered potatoes,” according to ESA. Phobos is the larger of the pair, about 14 miles wide, and circles Mars three times a day. Deimos, just seven or eight miles across, orbits Mars every 30 hours.

Right now researchers aren’t sure where the moons came from, and it remains a source of mystery. Some believe they could have been asteroids captured in orbit around the Red Planet. Others think they could be chunks of Mars itself, blown out by a giant collision billions of years ago. 

The new Europa Clipper image was taken using one of the spacecraft’s thermal sensors, designed to detect heat instead of visible light. This tool will later be used to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, a frozen world believed to harbor a salty ocean beneath its icy crust — and possibly the conditions to support life. The instrument — the Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System, or E-Themis — should help identify places where Europa’s inner ocean might be interacting with its frozen shell — a key clue in the search for alien life.

The spacecraft used Mars’ gravity in March to tweak its path, a maneuver known as a gravity assist, on its way to the outer solar system. That close encounter provided a convenient moment to test instruments — and admire Earth’s ruddy neighbor. Just a few days later, on March 12, another spacecraft made a pop-in for a gravity assist and some photos. That robotic spacecraft is on the European Hera mission to study the asteroid NASA intentionally crashed into three years ago.

Europa Clipper launched from Florida in October 2024 and is scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030. Once there, it will perform nearly 50 flybys of Europa, gathering detailed measurements of its surface, interior, and chemistry. If NASA finds that Europa is a habitable place, a second Europa mission could return to determine if there are indeed any inhabitants. 

The vision sounds irresistible: step onto a train in New York, and emerge 54 minutes later in London, having traveled through a tunnel beneath the Atlantic Ocean. This kind of travel is described in some recent proposals. But is a trans-Atlantic tunnel really possible or the stuff of science fiction?

The short answer: It’s probably not possible with current technology.

Motty remains the only confirmed hybrid between an African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Although the calf tragically died just days after birth, his unique descent earned him the rare distinction of being named the “world’s rarest elephant” by Guinness World Records.

Motty was born on July 11, 1978, at Chester Zoo in the UK and named after its founder, George Mottershead. As proven by tissue samples taken from the tiny male calf, this individual was the result of interbreeding between Jumbolino, a male bull African elephant, and Sheba, a female Asian elephant.

When the matriarch Sheba fell first pregnant, there wasn’t much doubt over the paternity of the individual; Jumbolino was said to be the only male elephant in the shared enclosure. However, there were still significant doubts about whether it would be possible for the two different species to produce viable offspring.

It would be impossible for these two species to mate in the wild given the vast geographical distance that separates their natural ranges on two different continents. Furthermore, these two animals are not just different species; they are different genera, meaning they are relatively distant from each other on the genetic tree too. 

African elephants and Asian elephants bear some distinct physical differences. The former species is larger, growing up to 3 to 4 meters (9.8 to 13.1 feet) from shoulder to toe, while the latter will only grow 2 to 3.5 meters (6.5 to 11.4 feet) tall. African elephants also have significantly larger ears, perfectly evolved for allowing heat to radiate away from the body in the savannah, and tend to have more wrinkly skin. 

Just as you’d expect with a hybrid of the two, Motty had features of both his mother and father. His head shape and larger ears were clearly those of an African elephant, but he also had five toenails on the front feet and four on the hind, which is a characteristic of Asian elephants.

Unfortunately, Motty had a tough start in life. Born six weeks premature, he was extremely underweight and required intensive veterinarian care from the get-go. Just 10 days after he was born, he succumbed to necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious gastrointestinal problem in newborn animals. He died on July 21, 1978. A necropsy later showed that he was suffering from a severe E. coli infection in both his colon and the umbilical cord. 

Upon his death, the body of this unique individual was reportedly preserved by a private collection and it is said to be kept at the Natural History Museum in London.

Motty is a true individual, the likes of which have never been seen since. However, there are plenty of other examples of interspecies romping and hybridization elsewhere in the animal kingdom. There is the sought-after beefalo and the uber-cute dog-fox combo, not to mention the surprising number of wholphins that swim the world’s oceans.

An earlier version of this story was published in 2023.

Solar thermal power has a great advantage over solar panels on roofs or in most solar farms: it can continue to produce electricity after the Sun has gone down. The mirrors known as heliostats at solar thermal facilities focus sunlight to heat fluids to very high temperatures to drive turbines. The more common version involves fields of heliostats reflecting light on a central tower through which the fluids move. The materials stay hot enough to continue spinning the turbines after dark, depending on the fluid and the turbine sometimes all night.

That advantage has not been sufficient to allow solar thermal to compete commercially with photovoltaics’ lower price and flexibility of location, although there are reasons to think that may change.  However, while the turbines keep working at night, the mirrors don’t, which is something Dr John Sandusky of Sandia National Labs wants to change.

“The heliostat fields don’t have a night job. They just sit there unused. The nation has an opportunity to give them a night job at a relatively low cost for finding near-Earth objects,” Sandusky told the Sandia newsletter LabNews. “If we knew ahead of time that an asteroid was coming and where it might hit, we’d have a better chance to prepare and reduce the potential damage.”

Sandusky’s first test of the idea was conducted with just one of the 212 heliostats at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility. Using software already built to move the heliostat in daylight, he had it sweep backwards and forwards around once a minute and collected the light it focused on the tower.

Current asteroid-hunting techniques produce images of areas of the sky tracked to follow the apparent motion of the stars. Asteroids, or anything else, moving relative to the stars, show up as streaks that computers can recognize.

We’ve become a lot better at detecting objects moving through the inner Solar System in recent years, which is why all three interstellar visitors we have detected have been since 2017. We already know the Vera C Rubin Observatory can take it up a notch further. Nevertheless, there is still room for further improvement, since we lack the capacity to watch the whole sky at once. Moreover, if we had a different method for finding objects like this, the giant telescopes currently used for the purpose could be redeployed to research roles.

Sandusky anticipates that the relative motion of an asteroid compared to the stars will lead to a detection when the light of one is reflected off the heliostat. 

“Solar towers collect a million watts of sunlight,” Sandusky said. “At night, we want to collect a femtowatt, which is a millionth of a billionth of a watt of power of sunlight that’s scattered off of asteroids.”

Sandusky’s test run using the single heliostat did not find an asteroid, but he didn’t really expect it would. Instead, he wanted to prove it could be moved at the appropriate rate and reflect starlight to the instruments, and he has claimed success. He presented the results to a conference last year and published a paper, but is now seeking wider input on whether the idea has potential and how his proposed approach could improve. “We want to hear from our peers in optics and the asteroid hunting community,” Sandusky said. “Getting peer feedback provides an opportunity to understand what the concerns are about how this technology will work.”

Ironically, the basis for this idea comes from a question Sandusky was asked twenty years ago about the potential to use heliostats for imaging. “No. They’re not high enough optical quality to form an image,” he replied at the time. Nevertheless, the question lingered and it occurred to him there were parallels between the reflections of an object moving relative to the stars and frequency shifts used in radio communication.

“We have very precise methods for measuring frequency,” Sandusky said. “Even frequency changes as small as one-one-millionth of one cycle per second are measurable thanks to frequency standards that can be commercially procured and locked to references like GPS signaling. I knew it was possible to measure the very small rate differences of an asteroid passing relative to the stars.”

“If I can map all of the stars to one frequency, anything moving relative to the stars will appear at a neighboring frequency but still be separable,” he concluded. Having demonstrated the precise speed control required is possible, and that heliostats can reflect the stars, he’s ready to move on to try to find asteroids.

A stepping stone would be to have the heliostat reflect a part of the sky where a bright suitable object is known to pass, to see if it can be found this way. From there, one could chase smaller known objects, and eventually seek those not yet known. 

Sandusky also has ideas for related tasks that could expand heliostats’ nighttime uses, such as for detecting lost spacecraft, particularly orbiting between Earth and Moon, such as the one that hit the Moon in 2022. “Orbits near the moon can be difficult to track from the ground,” he said.

It’s unlikely there will be enough of a market to use heliostats in this way to substantially shift the economics of solar thermal projects when competing against other sources of energy, but every little bit helps.

The idea was published in Unconventional Imaging, Sensing and Adaptive Optics, as part of the proceedings of the Optical Engineering and Applications conference.

Further in-depth analysis, meticulously combining data from TESS with high-precision observations from powerful ground-based instruments, led to the exciting confirmation of a fourth planet (L 98-59 e) and, most notably, a fifth planet, L 98-59 f. This newly confirmed super-Earth, estimated to be nearly three times the mass of our own planet, receives a similar amount of energy from its host star as Earth does from the Sun, placing it firmly within the zone where liquid water, a cornerstone of life as we know it, could theoretically exist.

A European Space Agency spacecraft on its way to Jupiter’s moons has tested out one of its science instruments on our own Moon.

And it’s focussed on the same patch of the lunar surface seen in one of the most iconic images in science.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is headed to Jupiter to study its icy moons to search for signs of alien life, or conditions that could support alien life.

And as it flew past our Moon in August 2024, its Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) instrument listened to radio wave echoes bounced off the Moon to determine the height of the lunar surface.

Juice and the search for life

Scientists interested in the search for signs of life beyond Earth, and for signs of habitable worlds beyond Earth, say the icy moons of our Solar System are some of the most promising places.

That’s because moons like Enceladus at Saturn or Europa at Jupiter have liquid oceans beneath their icy, frozen surfaces.

And liquid water being a prerequisite for life on Earth as we know it, the presence of liquid water on these moons means they are potentially habitable.

Juice is on its way to study Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

It will arrive there in July 2031 and begin its exploration of these frozen worlds.

But in the meantime, flybys of other worlds – including our Moon – are giving science teams back on Earth the chance to test Juice’s instruments are working properly.

RIME’s radargram on the Moon

One of Juice’s instruments is the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME), which is a radar sounder that will give scientists information about what’s going on beneath the surface of the icy moons, as deep as 9km (5.5 miles) into their liquid subsurface oceans.

As Juice passed on our Moon, RIME captured this image of a section of the lunar surface.

Scientists say RIME’s first-ever radargram of a patch of lunar surface matches an elevation model of the same area captured by NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), seen below.

The bright pink and yellow line that waves across the dark purple background shows the height of the Moon’s surface.

The bumps and dips in the RIME data match up the height of the land in LOLA’s elevation map.

The test was an important stepping stone for RIME, as electronic noise coming from the rest of the spacecraft has been disturbing its readings.

During the flyby of the Moon, all of Juice’s instruments were switched off for 8 minutes, giving RIME the chance to observe in silence.

RIME scientists were then able check how the electronic noise affects the performance of the instrument.

Based on the data collected, they’ve been able to create an algorithm that counteracts disturbances to RIME caused by the rest of the spacecraft.

The team are satisfied the test worked, and RIME is up to the job of providing accurate information on what’s going on beneath Jupiter’s icy moons.

Not just any old patch of the Moon

The patch of the Moon studied by RIME is the same patch that can be seen in astronaut William Anders’ ‘Earthrise’ photo, which was captured on 24 December 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission.

Anders’ Earthrise photo is considered one of the most important images in science, as it gave humanity an unprecedented glimpse of what it would be like to see our home planet from the surface of another world.

The biggest crater, seen in the foreground of the image, was later renamed from ‘Pasteur T’ to ‘Anders’ Earthrise’.

So what next for Juice? The European Space Agency says the spacecraft is due to fly by Venus in August 2025.

This is a gravity assist manoeuvre, using Venus’s gravity to give Juice a boost on its journey.

Onwards to Jupiter, and the chance to find out whether Jupiter’s icy moons do indeed have the potential to host life.

This week, a Cretaceous-era trackway in Canada provides the first evidence of a dinosaur herd combining two species, scientists walked back on the claims that 10,000 is the optimal number of steps per day, and the so-called “entropy catastrophe” has been bypassed after researchers superheated gold to 14 times its melting point. Finally, we explore whether natural antidepressants are a legit alternative or just a load of nonsense.

Create an IFLScience account to get all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday and Saturday.

Missing 40 Percent Of Matter In The Universe Finally Discovered: “The Simulations Were Right All Along”

The regular matter that makes us, planets, stars, and galaxies is about 5 percent of the matter-energy content of the universe. The rest is made of dark matter and dark energy, though we are not sure what they are. There is also uncertainty around regular matter, since for a long time over one-third of it was not accounted for. Models had suggested that it would exist in the space between galaxies, and different groups using wildly different methods have now confirmed that it really is there. Read the full story here

Could We Be On Track Towards A Universal Cancer Vaccine? New Findings Say: Maybe

An experimental mRNA vaccine that supercharges existing cancer treatments could be laying the groundwork for a “universal” cancer vaccine, according to the team behind the breakthrough. Scientists at the University of Florida tested the innovation in mice and found it provoked a strong antitumor response when paired with immunotherapy. Read the full story here

First Evidence Of A Dinosaur Herd Combining Two Species Revealed In Cretaceous Tracks

A Late Cretaceous trackway in Canada contains the footprints of at least nine dinosaurs from four species. Two of the trackmakers were large tyrannosaurs, which may have sparked the motions of the other dinosaurs. However, while that part of the puzzle remains unsolved, the presence of both ceratopsians and an ankylosaurid moving together appears far more certain, suggesting multi-species herding similar to zebras and wildebeests during their great migration. Read the full story here

Here’s The Actual Number Of Steps You Should Walk Per Day (It’s Not 10,000)

We’re often told we need to walk “X number” of steps every day in order to stay healthy, although most of these claims are made by people who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. With little or no scientific evidence to back up these daily benchmarks, it has until now remained unclear exactly how many times we should be putting one foot in front of the other. Read the full story here

Solid Gold Superheated To 14 Times Its Melting Point, Bypassing The “Entropy Catastrophe”

Researchers have been able to heat up a sample of solid gold to over 14 times its melting temperature for a fraction of a second, bypassing a theoretical limit known as the entropy catastrophe. The approach, known as superheating, might lead to a better understanding of how substances change phase at a fundamental level and even to improved production of materials. Read the full story here

TWIS is published weekly on our Linkedin page, join us there for even more content.

Feature of the week: 

Natural Antidepressants: Legit Alternative Or A Load Of Nonsense?

What do zinc, bitter orange, lavender, saffron, and vitamin D all have in common? No, they’re not the ingredients to a bizarre-sounding salad, but they are all products that have been touted as natural antidepressants. The real question is – do any of them actually work? Read the full story here

More content:

Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 36 (July 2025) is available now. This month we asked, “How To Fake A Fossil” – check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.

PLUS, the We Have Questions podcast – an audio version of our coveted CURIOUS e-magazine column – continues. In episode 11, we ask, “Why Are Yawns Contagious?”

The Big Questions podcast has returned, and we’re continuing season 5 with episode 3’s big question: How Do Black Holes Shape The Universe?