Category: 7. Science

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Boeing [NYSE: BA] engineers have confirmed the 9th and 10th O3b mPOWER satellites, built for leading space solutions company SES, have successfully launched and are transmitting signals from space after lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:12 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Approximately two hours after liftoff, the satellites separated from the launch vehicle, initiating a series of comprehensive health checks by Boeing team members in El Segundo, Calif., home to Boeing’s mission control facility and the world’s largest satellite factory.

Leveraging highly efficient xenon thrusters to maneuver in space, the satellites will continue their 130-day journey to MEO, approximately 8,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface. They will join the first eight satellites currently providing high-performance connectivity services to SES users worldwide.

“We designed O3b mPOWER so each additional satellite beyond the first six boosts capacity, performance, and resilience,” said Michelle Parker, vice president, Boeing Space Mission Systems. “This capability stems from our investments in cutting-edge technology and the enhanced production techniques we’ve refined over the course of the program.”

The O3b mPOWER constellation entered commercial service in April 2024, providing high-throughput, low latency connectivity that mimics the speed and reliability of traditional internet connections, but with virtually unlimited geographic flexibility. From MEO, the satellites provide coverage to nearly 95% of the world’s population.

“I’m proud of our SES team and partners for continuously pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in space to bring critical connectivity where it matters most. Over the past year, our O3b mPOWER services have been transforming industries and empowering our key customers including telco operators, cruise lines, airlines, NATO, the Government of Luxembourg, the Government of United States and many other allied governments,” said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES. “With this launch we continue adding incremental capacity to our initial O3b mPOWER constellation, strengthening our MEO network and delivering high throughput and predictable low latency services at scale.”

The satellites leverage digitally formed beams to dynamically address evolving communication needs across geographies and customer bases. Boeing hardened this technology for military use on the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS)-11 and WGS-12 and Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) nuclear command and control satellites the company is building for the U.S. Space Force. This software-defined technology allows for more secure and reliable connectivity resistant to attempts of jamming, interruption or interception.

A leading global aerospace company and top U.S. exporter, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. Our U.S. and global workforce and supplier base drive innovation, economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing is committed to fostering a culture based on our core values of safety, quality and integrity.  

Contact

Zeyad Maasarani
Boeing Communications
+1-562-400-5533
zeyad.maasarani@boeing.com 

Boeing Media Relations
media@boeing.com

Suzanne Ong
SES Communications
+352 710 725 500
suzanne.ong@ses.com 

SOURCE Boeing

When NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly probe skims the lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan, it may encounter a froth akin to Earth’s first signs of life, a new study suggests.

Titan is strikingly similar to Earth in some respects. Like the planet we call home, its surface is covered with large lakes and seas of liquid. And, much like the water cycle on Earth, Titan’s liquids – formed of hydrocarbons like methane and ethane – cycle between sky and shore, evaporating to form clouds and falling as rain.

The water cycle is the circulatory system of life on Earth, and scientists suspect that similar processes on Titan could help life find its form there, too.

Related: Titan Could Have An Alien Biosphere – But It Might Be Dog-Sized

A new study in the International Journal of Astrobiology explores the possibility that proto-cell structures called vesicles could form on Titan. These simple bubbles of fatty molecules contain an inner pocket of goop surrounded by a membrane, similar to a cell.

“The existence of any vesicles on Titan would demonstrate an increase in order and complexity, which are conditions necessary for the origin of life,” explains planetary scientist Conor Nixon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“We’re excited about these new ideas because they can open up new directions in Titan research and may change how we search for life on Titan in the future.”

Nixon and his colleague Christian Mayer, a physical chemist from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, built on existing theories about how on Earth inorganic matter sprang to life in the dynamic spray of splashes and storms.

The vesicles, Nixon and Mayer suggest, could form out of a complex process only possible on worlds with liquid cycling.

On Titan, it would all start with a methane downpour that carries molecules from the atmosphere to a lake’s surface. These molecules, called amphiphiles, have one polar end that attracts liquids, and one non-polar end that attracts fats.

“Regarding amphiphilic compounds, the recent Cassini mission revealed the presence of organic nitrile. Such compounds… are basically amphiphilic and have the capability to self-aggregate in non-polar environments,” Nixon and Mayer write.

These molecules could aggregate to form a layer covering the surface of the lake. Then, when more droplets of liquid splash on this layer, they become coated with it before bouncing back into the air, forming a mist of enclosed droplets.

A second dunk in the lake seals the deal: to become stable, vesicles need a double layer of amphiphiles, a bit like sealing two layers of velcro together.

Intriguingly, a two-layered membrane such as this is a crucial part of a biological cell.

Once double-dipped, the vesicles face a final test, something verging on biological evolution.

“Stable vesicles will accumulate over time, and so will the corresponding stabilizing amphiphiles that are temporarily protected from decomposition,” Nixon and Mayer write.

“In a long-term compositional selection process, the most stable vesicles will proliferate, while less stable ones form dead ends… This leads to an evolution process leading to increasing complexity and functionality.”

If this process is happening on Titan, it could have major implications for how life arises from non-living matter.

To confirm the hypothesis, scientists could use a laser, light scattering analysis and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to look for amphiphiles drifting around in Titan’s atmosphere, as an indication of the planet’s potential for harboring life.

Sadly, NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission, set to arrive in 2034, won’t be carrying the necessary instruments to detect vesicles. But it will conduct chemical analysis to see if complex chemistry is or has been occurring, which could reveal whether life is common if given the right environment, or if Earth just got lucky.

The new research was published in International Journal of Astrobiology.

Photo released on June 11, 2021 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows a selfie of China’s first Mars rover Zhurong with the landing platform. [Photo/Xinhua]

China’s first Mars sample-return mission, Tianwen-3, is scheduled for launch around 2028, with the goal of returning no less than 500 grams of Martian samples to Earth by around 2031, according to the mission’s chief scientist.

Hou Zengqian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the Tianwen-3 mission, together with his collaborators, recently published an article in Nature Astronomy, systematically outlining the overall plan and scientific objectives of the mission for the first time.

“The mission will be a critical step in China’s planetary exploration. We hope to provide the international community with an unprecedented opportunity to understand Mars,” Hou said.

The Tianwen-3 mission will involve two launches, and the spacecraft will take seven to eight months to reach Mars. It will operate on Mars for about one year and then return to Earth, with the entire process spanning over three years, according to Hou.

Life on the Red Planet?

“We aim to unravel the mystery of whether life ever existed on Mars,” Hou said.

He introduced three primary scientific objectives for the Tianwen-3 mission: searching for potential signs of life on Mars, including biomarkers, fossils and archaea; studying the evolution of Mars’ habitability, such as changes in water, atmosphere and oceans; and investigating the geological structure and evolutionary history of Mars, from surface features to internal dynamics.

These three objectives are interconnected. The origination of life requires a habitable environment, the proliferation of life evolves in tandem with the environment, and habitability is closely linked to geological processes, Hou explained.

To address these objectives, nine research themes have been established, covering aspects such as life-related elements, environmental conditions and geology, in order to “enhance our understanding of this Earth-like planet in our solar system,” Hou said.

How will samples be collected?

The mission’s engineering team has preliminarily designed three sampling methods: surface scooping, deep drilling and drone-assisted collection to ensure sample diversity and scientific value.

Tianwen-3 will not carry a Mars rover. Instead, it will use a drone to collect samples from locations within several hundred meters of the landing site, Hou said.

He noted that Tianwen-3 will be the first mission internationally to conduct 2-meter-deep drilling for sample collection on Mars.

Previously, NASA’s Perseverance rover collected shallow surface samples, and will rely on a follow-up mission to return them to Earth. In contrast, Tianwen-3 aims to accomplish both sampling and return in a single mission.

Hou emphasized that planetary protection is a major issue in deep space exploration, and that contamination control is a critical challenge that must be addressed. Strict measures are required to prevent the contamination of Mars by the spacecraft and the potential contamination of Earth’s biosphere by Martian samples.

China will adhere strictly to the planetary protection policies of the Committee on Space Research to safeguard Mars from terrestrial contamination and protect Earth from potential Martian life, ensuring authentic and reliable scientific results, Hou said.

The Tianwen-3 mission will establish a complete chain in the sample preservation process, from collection and sealing on Mars to transportation and analysis on Earth. Additionally, a high-security Mars sample laboratory will be constructed, featuring ultra-clean and biosafety areas, where returned samples will undergo strict sterilization, unsealing, processing and biological risk assessment, Hou said.

Where will samples be sourced?

“The selection of the landing site on Mars is crucial, as it directly impacts the achievement of the mission’s scientific objectives. From an initial pool of over 80 candidate sites, we have narrowed it down to 19, and by the end of 2026, three final candidate sites will be selected,” Hou said.

This selection must balance engineering constraints and scientific priorities. Due to engineering limitations, the landing site must be located between 17 degrees and 30 degrees north latitude on Mars. Scientifically, the site should offer the highest potential to harbor and preserve traces of life, the scientist said.

This is akin to mineral exploration on Earth — it requires the establishment of theories and models to guide predictions, and to then search for a needle in the haystack.

Similarly, identifying a suitable landing site requires a study of the conditions needed for the emergence, proliferation and preservation of life, and the development of predictive models, Hou noted.

If there is or was life on Mars, it would be or have been the result of the interplay of multiple factors, such as liquid water, atmosphere, temperature, magnetic field and internal structure. An ideal landing site should meet the requirements for habitability and life development, Hou said.

Open collaboration

China has adopted a fully open and collaborative approach to the Tianwen-3 mission, from the formulation of scientific goals and the development of payloads to the joint research to be conducted on returned samples.

“We aim to build a global platform for scientific collaboration through planetary exploration, advancing humanity’s shared scientific endeavors,” Hou said.

“During the scientific goal-setting phase, we hosted an international conference, inviting global experts to participate in the discussion. For payloads, China issued an international call for proposals. After the samples are returned, China will open access to international scientists, provided safety is ensured,” Hou said.

He added that some key technologies for the Tianwen-3 mission remain under development. The scientific team is leveraging Martian observational data to advance landing-site selection. Meanwhile, to achieve its primary scientific objectives, the team is intensifying full-chain research on the search for life on Mars.

Liu Jizhong, chief designer of the Tianwen-3 mission, said in an earlier interview that the retrieval of samples from Mars is the most technically challenging space exploration mission since the Apollo program, and such a retrieval has never been realized.

To meet this goal, Chinese space engineers have to tackle key tasks such as collecting samples on the Martian surface, taking off from the Red Planet, rendezvousing in the Mars orbit, and protecting the planet from contamination, Liu explained.

The entire process of the mission plan is very complex, involving 13 phases and utilizing in-situ and remote-sensing detection technologies. 

Paleontologists have analyzed the fossilized features of the brain and central nervous system of Mollisonia symmetrica, an extinct animal that lived in the mid-Cambrian seas around 508 million years ago. Their results show that Mollisonia symmetrica’s nervous system corresponds to that of living spiders and scorpions (arachnids). This discovery challenges the widely held belief that the diversification of arachnids happened only after their common ancestor had conquered the land.

Until now, Mollisonia symmetrica was thought to represent an ancestral member of a specific group of arthropods known as chelicerates, which lived during the Cambrian period and included ancestors of today’s horseshoe crabs.

To their surprise, University of Arizona’s Professor Nicholas Strausfeld and his colleagues found that the neural arrangements in the animal’s fossilized brain are not organized like those in horseshoe crabs, as could be expected, but instead are organized the same way as they are in modern spiders and their relatives.

“It is still vigorously debated where and when arachnids first appeared, and what kind of chelicerates were their ancestors, and whether these were marine or semi-aquatic like horseshoe crabs.”

Mollisonia symmetrica outwardly resembles some other early chelicerates from the lower and mid-Cambrian in that its body was composed of two parts: a broad rounded carapace in the front and a sturdy segmented trunk ending in a broad, tail-like structure.

Some scientists have referred to the organization of a carapace in front, followed by a segmented trunk as similar to the body plan of a scorpion.

But nobody had claimed that Mollisonia symmetrica was anything more exotic than a basal chelicerate, even more primitive than the ancestor of the horseshoe crab, for example.

What Professor Strausfeld and co-authors found indicating Mollisonia symmetrica’s status as an arachnid is its fossilized brain and nervous system.

As in spiders and other present-day arachnids, the anterior part of Mollisonia symmetrica’s body (called the prosoma) contains a radiating pattern of segmental ganglia that control the movements of five pairs of segmental appendages.

In addition to those arachnid-like features, Mollisonia symmetrica also revealed an unsegmented brain extending short nerves to a pair of pincer-like claws, reminiscent of the fangs of spiders and other arachnids.

But the decisive feature demonstrating arachnid identity is the unique organization of the mollisoniid brain, which is the reverse of the front-to-back arrangement found in present-day crustaceans, insects and centipedes, and even horseshoe crabs, such as the genus Limulus.

“It’s as if the Limulus-type brain seen in Cambrian fossils, or the brains of ancestral and present-day crustaceans and insects, have been flipped backwards, which is what we see in modern spiders,” Professor Strausfeld said.

“The latter finding may be a crucial evolutionary development, because studies of existing spider brains suggest that this back-to-front arrangement provides shortcuts from neuronal control centers to underlying circuits that coordinate a spider’s (or its relative’s) amazing repertoire of movements,” said Dr. Frank Hirth, a paleontologist at King’s College London.

“This arrangement likely confers stealth in hunting, rapidity in pursuit and in the case of spiders, an exquisite dexterity for the spinning of webs to entrap prey.”

“This is a major step in evolution, which appears to be exclusive to arachnids.”

“Yet already in Mollisonia symmetrica, we identified brain domains that correspond to living species with which we can predict the underlying genetic makeup that is common to all arthropods.”

“The arachnid brain is unlike any other brain on this planet, and it suggests that its organization has something to do with computational speed and the control of motor actions,” Professor Strausfeld said.

“The first creatures to come onto land were probably millipede-like arthropods and probably some ancestral, insect-like creatures, an evolutionary branch of crustaceans.”

“We might imagine that a Mollisonia symmetrica-like arachnid also became adapted to terrestrial life making early insects and millipedes their daily diet.”

“The first arachnids on land may have contributed to the evolution of a critical defense mechanism: insect wings, hence flight and escape.”

“Being able to fly gives you a serious advantage when you’re being pursued by a spider.”

“Yet, despite their aerial mobility, insects are still caught in their millions in exquisite silken webs spun by spiders.”

The results appear in the journal Current Biology.

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Nicholas J. Strausfeld et al. Cambrian origin of the arachnid brain. Current Biology, published online July 22, 2025; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.06.063

Fossilized bite marks suggest there could have been a dramatic tussle between a gigantic terror bird and an even more massive crocodile around 12 million years ago.

Phorusrhacids, commonly known as “terror birds,” were apex predators that terrorized prey in the ancient ecosystems of South America. While these flightless carnivores had little to fear on land, a new study, published Tuesday (July 22) in the journal Biology Letters, indicates that they weren’t necessarily safe around water.

Tiny organisms live in a world where the usual rules of motion feel upside-down. Water that slips through our fingers turns syrupy at their scale, dragging against every twitch. Yet a sperm cell or a green alga skims along as if the goo were barely there.

Sperm are such great swimmers because of a slender flagellum that ripples like a living whip, trading brute force for rhythmic finesse.. Each ripple is powered from inside the tail itself.

Molecular motors pull on elastic filaments, sending a wave from base to tip and sidestepping the “scallop theorem,” which says a back-and-forth paddle alone can’t move a swimmer in thick fluids.

To cover even a few body lengths, these cells need relentless, precisely timed strokes – an exercise in efficiency more than muscle.

Flagellum, sperm, and physics

At our scale, momentum carries a swimmer after every kick. In the micro world, inertia fades to nothing. The Reynolds number – a handy gauge of whether a fluid acts watery or sticky – drops so low that every stroke stops the instant the force ends.

Progress demands a motion that never looks the same forward and backward, which is why flagella send waves in one direction instead of simply flapping.

That wave costs energy, and cells pay the bill by burning chemical fuel. Because the power source rides within the flagellum, it can be arranged in sly ways that make Newton’s third law – the equal-and-opposite rule – seem optional.

The flagellum bends, the fluid pushes back, but somehow the cell sheds less energy than textbook physics predicts.

Active energy in sperm flagellum

After filming Chlamydomonas algae and human sperm with high-speed microscopes, Kenta Ishimoto, Clément Moreau, and Kento Yasuda of Kyoto University noticed a subtle twist.

Flagella do not behave like ordinary elastic rods; they bend asymmetrically, dodging the heaviest drag.

The team calls this behavior “odd elasticity.” Instead of springing back symmetrically like a rubber band, sections of the tail flex in a way that keeps thrust high while sapping little energy.

The researchers coined a parameter, the odd-elastic modulus, to capture how far a living filament departs from everyday elastic behavior.

A large value signals that internal motors, not external pushes, dominate the dance. That measurement turns a curious observation into a quantity engineers can plug into their own designs.

At odds with Newton

Odd elasticity matters because it blurs the neat ledger of action and reaction. When energy pours into a system locally – and flagellar motors work section by section – the fluid’s answer need not mirror the push.

A segment can bend, slip past resistance, then return on a slightly different path, carving out net motion without paying a full energy toll. It is almost as if the flagellum writes its own exception to Newton’s classroom rulebook.

To weave all the pieces together, the Kyoto group built a framework they named odd elastohydrodynamics. The term ties elasticity, fluid flow, and those quirky internal forces into one set of equations.

Run the math, and the model predicts that a flagellum naturally settles into a stable loop of motion called a limit cycle. No external brain is needed; once the motors switch on, the beat locks into a self-sustaining rhythm.

Odd elastohydrodynamics in action

Lab measurements back the theory. A sperm tail swings about ten times per second, tracing an S-shaped curve that repeats with clocklike precision. Change the fluid’s thickness or tweak the cell’s fuel supply, and the loop stretches or tightens in ways the equations capture neatly.

Chlamydomonas, with two symphonic flagella, swims even faster than intuition suggests in thicker liquids—an advantage the model attributes to fine-tuned odd elasticity trimming viscous losses.

Because the theory links internal mechanics to observable speed, researchers can now work backward: measure a tail’s shape, infer its odd-elastic modulus, and forecast how the swimmer will perform in a new environment. That feedback loop promises practical payoffs far beyond the microscope slide.

Why sperm flagellum matters

Designers of drug-delivery robots dream of devices the size of red blood cells that can snake through arteries.

Tiny propellers fail at that scale, but a soft filament built with odd-elastic principles could wiggle through plasma on microwatts of power.

Respiratory medicine may also benefit; cilia lining our airways clear mucus using beats that likely exploit similar asymmetric elasticity. If those cilia falter, a quantitative gauge of their odd-elastic modulus might flag early trouble.

Even microbes adjust their swimming style to stick to surfaces or seek nutrients. Knowing how odd forces shift under different conditions could help biologists anticipate when a pathogen clings stubbornly to tissue or slips away into circulation.

Tiny swimmers changing physics

Odd elastohydrodynamics nudges physics to widen its scope. Whenever local engines pump energy into soft matter – whether in muscle fibers, developing embryos, or swarms of bacterial flagella – equal-and-opposite can give way to rich new patterns.

Measuring odd-elastic moduli across systems may reveal common threads that tie together biology’s many moving parts.

For now, Ishimoto, Moreau, and Yasuda have carved out a clear path from curious microscope videos to a mathematical toolkit and, eventually, to devices that mimic sperm and their flagellum – life’s tiniest swimmers.

By mapping how flagella bend the rules, they show that nature’s solutions to sticky problems can inspire technology that glides just as smoothly through the thickest of soups.

The full study was published in the journal PRX Life.

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The previously unknown nucleus aluminum-20 has been observed for the first time by detecting its in-flight decays.

Currently, more than 3,300 nuclides are known, yet fewer than 300 are stable and exist naturally. The remainder are unstable nuclides that undergo radioactive decay.

Common decay modes, such as α decay, β- decay, β+ decay, electron capture, γ radiation, and fission, were discovered by the mid-20th century.

Over the past several decades, due to the tremendous development in nuclear physics experimental facilities and detection technologies, scientists have discovered several exotic decay modes in the study of nuclei far from the stability, particularly in neutron-deficient nuclei.

In the 1970s, scientists discovered single-proton radioactivity, where nuclei decay by emitting a proton.

In the 21st century, two-proton radioactivity was found in the decays of some extremely neutron-deficient nuclei.

In recent years, even rarer decay phenomena such as three-, four-, and five-proton emission were observed.

“Aluminum-20 is the lightest aluminum isotope that has been discovered so far,” said Dr. Xiaodong Xu, a physicist with the Institute of Modern Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Located beyond the proton drip line, it has seven fewer neutrons than the stable aluminum isotope.”

Using an in-flight decay technique at the Fragment Separator of the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, the physicists measured angular correlations of aluminum-20’s decay products.

Through detailed analysis of angular correlations, they found that the aluminum-20 ground state first decays by emitting one proton to the intermediate ground state of magnesium-19, followed by subsequent decay of magnesium-19 ground state via simultaneous two-proton emission.

Aluminum-20 is the first observed three-proton emitter where its one-proton decay daughter nucleus is a two-proton radioactive nucleus.

The researchers also found that the decay energy of the aluminum-20 ground state is significantly smaller than the predictions inferred from the isospin symmetry, indicating a possible isospin symmetry breaking in aluminum-20 and its mirror partner neon-20.

This finding is supported by state-of-the-art theoretical calculations that predict that the spin-parity of the aluminum-20 ground state differs from the spin-parity of the neon-20 ground state.

“This study advances our understanding of the proton-emission phenomena, and provides insights into the structure and decay of nuclei beyond the proton drip line,” Dr. Xu said.

The team’s paper was published this month in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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X.-D. Xu et al. 2025. Isospin Symmetry Breaking Disclosed in the Decay of Three-Proton Emitter 20Al. Phys. Rev. Lett 135, 022502; doi: 10.1103/hkmy-yfdk

More than 2,000 curious visitors from Newport News and the surrounding Hampton Roads region of Virginia flocked to Christopher Newport University (CNU) on May 31, 2025 for their annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) Community Day, and the NASA eClips team from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) made sure every one of them left with their eyes—and imaginations—fixed on the Sun.

At the heart of the NASA eClips exhibit were NIA’s STEM Student Ambassadors—a team of carefully selected high school students from the Tidewater region of Virginia who underwent extensive training with NASA eClips educators during the summer of 2024. These bright, enthusiastic young leaders are passionate about communicating about and advocating for STEM. The STEM Student Ambassador program is made possible through a Coastal Virginia STEM Hub grant from the Virginia General Assembly and is already having an impact.

Throughout the day, the Ambassadors engaged learners of all ages with two creative, hands-on experiences that connected STEM and the arts:

• Chalk Corona – Using black construction paper and vibrant chalk, participants recreated the Sun’s corona—the super-hot, gaseous “crown” that’s visible during a total solar eclipse. While they shaded and smudged, the Ambassadors explained why the corona is so important to solar research and handed out certified solar viewers for safe Sun-watching back home.
• Pastel Auroras – Visitors also discovered how solar wind, storms, and coronal mass ejections (aka Sun “sneezes”) spark Earth’s dazzling auroras. Guided by the Ambassadors, budding artists layered pastels to capture swirling curtains of light, tying recent mid-Atlantic aurora sightings to real-time space weather.

Throughout the day, the Ambassadors’ energy was contagious, turning complex heliophysics into hands-on fun and opening eyes to the opportunities and careers that await in STEM. Judging by the smiles—and the dusting of chalk and pastels—NASA eClips’ presence was, quite literally, the “crowning” touch on an unforgettable community celebration of STEM.

The NASA eClips project provides educators with standards-based videos, activities, and lessons to increase STEM literacy through the lens of NASA. It is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AB91A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two powerful communications satellites today (July 22), then aced its landing on a ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT), carrying SES’ O3b mPOWER 9 and 10 satellites toward medium Earth orbit (MEO), about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) above our planet.

That was a day later than originally planned. SpaceX tried to launch the mission Monday (July 21) but aborted the try 11 seconds before liftoff, for reasons that the company did not immediately explain.

The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned today roughly 8.5 minutes after launch, touching down on the SpaceX droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Archaeologists working at the Phoenician site of Tell el-Burak in Lebanon have uncovered an intriguing discovery that sheds new light on Iron Age construction technology. In a Scientific Reports paper, scientists describe the first known use of hydraulic lime plaster in the region, with a surprising level of innovation achieved through recycling ceramic fragments.

Tell el-Burak, located near the southern coast of Lebanon, was an early agricultural site occupied between 725 and 350 BCE. At the site, archaeologists found such facilities as a large wine press—believed to be Lebanon’s oldest wine press—as well as plastered basins and floors that made up part of a larger agricultural complex. These structures, though varied in function, had one feature in common: they were coated with a distinctive plaster different from standard ancient lime mixtures.

To identify the composition and purpose of this plaster, the researchers conducted an extensive analysis of the material using a combination of techniques, including polarized light microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and thermogravimetric analysis. These techniques confirmed that the plaster contained lime and locally available sand, but also a high level of crushed ceramic fragments.

The occurrence of ceramic material was not accidental. Microscopic analysis confirmed that the lime binder and ceramic fragments had reacted to form distinctive reaction rims. These chemical reactions indicate that the ceramics were deliberately added to enhance the properties of the plaster. The result was a mortar that would harden in the presence of water—a key characteristic of hydraulic plaster. This type of mortar would have been particularly useful in a wine press, where it would be exposed to constant moisture and would otherwise erode more fragile materials.

This discovery is significant because it indicates that Iron Age building in the southern Phoenician region had developed a form of hydraulic mortar several centuries before the traditionally accepted Roman use of pozzolanic materials like volcanic ash. The Tell el-Burak mortar was not derived from volcanic components or organic additives; instead, its resistance to water was achieved through the use of broken pottery, a locally available material.

The plaster was found in a number of areas at the site, which means that this technique was not an isolated experiment but part of a larger craftsmanship tradition. The fact that this material was consistently used in several installations makes it clear that the builders had an advanced understanding of how to modify lime-based plasters to suit a broad variety of functions, from juice extraction in the wine press to lining basins and floors.

This research disproves the traditional explanation of technological development in ancient construction, especially the one that focuses on Roman innovation. Instead, it highlights the ingenuity of earlier cultures like the Phoenicians, who reused available materials and developed effective construction techniques years before such techniques gained widespread recognition. The Tell el-Burak find contributes to our understanding of ancient engineering and suggests that hydraulic mortar expertise was more widespread—and developed sooner—than previously thought.

The study also opens doors to further investigation of ancient construction materials. Through analysis of other sites along the Phoenician coast, archaeologists may find similar applications of recycled ceramics and understand more about the regional technology networks.