Category: 7. Science

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just launched an advanced European weather satellite and aced its landing on a ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (July 1) at 5:04 p.m. EST (2104 GMT), carrying the MTG-Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit.

The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth as planned about 8.5 minutes later, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster (which is designated B1085), according to a SpaceX mission description. Among the booster’s previous flights were the Fram2 private astronaut mission, the Crew-9 flight to the International Space Station for NASA and a January 2025 launch that sent two private landers toward the moon: Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience.

The James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) latest target is Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. The nearby galaxy is five times more luminous than the Milky Way. It has previously been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, providing a great way to measure the two active space telescopes against each other.

While both JWST and Hubble have unique strengths, it is always fascinating to see how they see the same cosmic targets. In the case of M82, Webb’s excellent infrared camera technology can peer through the galaxy’s thick, dusty clouds, showing a remarkably bright, jaw-dropping hotbed of activity.

In Hubble’s visible light image, which is still spectacular, shows a lot of detail, but it’s impossible to see the stellar nursery where M82’s many young stars are formed. Webb, on the other hand, peels back the curtain, exposing a hotbed of activity.

Researchers are fascinated by M82’s relatively fast rate of new star formation, which far outpaces the expected rate based on its mass. Thanks to images like what JWST can capture, scientists can work to unravel the Universe’s cosmic mysteries. The leading theory now is that M82’s neighbor, the large spiral galaxy M81, interacted with M82 and sent the galaxy an influx of gas. This gas has the raw materials required for star formation.

M82 has more than 100 super star clusters, some of which are still forming, per the European Space Agency (ESA). Super star clusters, as evidenced by the name, are more massive and brighter than regular star clusters and can have hundreds of thousands of stars each.

Researchers have used Webb’s new data to identify plumes of material, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These PAH molecules can be used to trace star formation.

“Each plume is only about 160 light-years wide, and the Webb images show that these plumes are made up of multiple individual clouds that are 16–49 light-years across — an incredible level of detail enabled by Webb’s sensitive instruments,” ESA explains.

Image credits: Webb image by ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Bolatto. Hubble image by ESA/Hubble & NASA.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, long before the first plants and animals evolved, the planet was almost entirely covered in ice.

During this period known as Snowball Earth, temperatures across the planet repeatedly plummeted to well below freezing. But the cellular life that had already evolved managed to endure.

New research suggests that our ancient microscopic ancestors may have survived this icy period by sheltering in pools of water that formed on top of the relatively shallow ice sheets near the Earth’s equator.

To test these theories, scientists have been exploring meltwater ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica. They believe that the conditions here are likely similar to those that occurred in the equatorial regions during the Snowball Earth event.

Dr Anne Jungblut, a microbial researcher at the Natural History Museum, was involved in this latest research.

“We analysed samples from a variety of these ponds and found that they can support diverse communities of microorganisms,” says Anne.

“Each pond had clear traces of eukaryotic life, which are complex organisms whose cellular ancestors eventually gave rise to the huge diversity of life, including animals and plants, that we see today.”

“We can see from fossils that eukaryotes were around before and after Snowball Earth, so we know they made it through this period of intense freezing, and meltwater ponds might be how they did it!”

The study, which has been published in Nature Communications, was led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with co-authors from Cardiff University and University of Waikato in New Zealand.

How did life survive during Snowball Earth?

Snowball Earth is often used to refer to two consecutive glaciation events that took place between 635 and 720 million years ago, during a time known as the Cryogenian Period.

During these events the global average temperature plummeted to below -50°C, but conditions at the equator may have been somewhat more variable.

The slightly warmer temperatures around the middle of the Earth melted the top layers of ice to form meltwater ponds that hovered around 0°C. This stable, warmer temperature could have served as a habitable refuge for some forms of complex life.

The diverse communities of microorganisms that lived in these ponds would have created their own ecosystems that allowed life to survive. It is these communities that Anne and her colleagues have been studying in Antarctica.

“In Antarctic meltwater ponds, the bottom is often covered with microbial mats,” says Anne. “These mats contain colonies of microorganisms, including bacteria and eukaryotes such as amoeba, fungi and ciliates.”

Microbial mats form from the build-up of multiple layers of bacteria, such as cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria evolved before the Snowball Earth event, so these mats may have been present in the meltwater ponds during this time.

“These mats are super exciting to study because they are entire ecosystems of microscopic life,” explains Anne. “They are almost like forests where the cyanobacteria are the trees that provide shelter and resources for other microorganisms. Some eukaryotes graze on the bacteria, while others are predatory. We can see so many interactions going on that can tell us a lot about how life interacted during early Earth.”

How can this help with the search for life on other planets?

The study of microorganisms in extreme environments not only provides insight into early Earth but can aid in the search for life on other icy worlds in the solar system.

This is because the way in which the scientists detect the presence of life in Antarctic ponds. Rather than looking for the microorganisms themselves, they can search for biosignatures. These biosignatures include molecules like DNA and lipids. The latter are a group of organic compounds that make up the cell walls and are useful for energy storage in living organisms.

One type of these lipids that occurs in all eukaryotes are called Sterols. The research team were able to use these to detect the presence of complex eukaryotic life in these ponds.

By using the same method of detecting and interpreting biosignatures, scientists think this could help in the search for life on other objects in the solar system.

“The more we understand about these biosignatures, the more we can learn about how they differ between organisms and how they might be affected by their environment,” says Anne. “This work can help us understand the signatures to look for during the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.”

For instance, Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a small world with liquid water beneath an icy crust that scientists believe could potentially support life.

Enceladus also has geyser-like jets that spew water vapour and ice particles into space. Future missions could include an orbiter that will pass through these geysers and capture liquid which could then be analysed for biosignatures of life.

You can learn more about the search for life on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn in our latest exhibition, Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?

On November 14, 2003, astronomers spotted what was at the time the most distant known object orbiting the Sun. They called it Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It’s a cold, reddish dwarf planet that drifts billions of miles away from the Sun during its 10,000-year orbit before coming in for a relatively close approach to our star. Its next perihelion is happening in July 2076, and astronomers want to take advantage of this rare encounter by flying a mission to the mysterious object.

A team of researchers from Italy suggests mission concepts that could reach Sedna in seven to 10 years using cutting-edge technology. In a paper available on the pre-print website arXiv, they illustrate two experimental propulsion concepts that involve a nuclear fusion rocket engine and a new take on solar sailing technology. The propulsion technologies could cut down travel time to Sedna by more than 50% compared to traditional methods of space travel, allowing scientists a unique opportunity to gather clues about the early formation of the solar system and probe the theoretical Oort Cloud.

When it was discovered, Sedna was around 8 billion miles (13 billion kilometers) from the Sun. (Pluto, the most famous dwarf planet, has an average distance of 3.7 billion miles from the Sun.) Sedna is known as a Trans-Neptunian object, a group of objects that orbit the Sun farther out than Neptune. It has an extremely eccentric orbit: at its farthest distance, Sedna is 84 billion miles away from the Sun, or 900 times the distance between Earth and our star. During its closest approach, Sedna will be around 7 billion miles away from the Sun, nearly three times farther than Neptune. That’s still far, but it’s close enough for a spacecraft to reach the celestial object before it fades back into ultra-distant darkness.

Spacecraft have traveled farther distances before. Voyager 1 and 2 started their interstellar journey in 1977 and have traveled 15 billion miles and 12.7 billion miles thus far. It took Voyager 2 around 12 years to reach Neptune. Based on current technology, scientists estimate it would take around 20-30 years to reach Sedna during its closest approach, while using Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Neptune as gravity assists. That would mean the launch window to reach Sedna is fast approaching, with no clear plans yet in place.

Instead, the researchers behind the new study suggest alternative methods to get us there faster. The first is the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) rocket engine, which is currently under development at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory. The fusion-powered rocket engine would produce both thrust and electrical power from a controlled nuclear fusion reaction, providing more power than chemical rockets.

“The DFD presents a promising alternative to conventional propulsion, offering high thrust-to-weight ratio and continuous acceleration,” the researchers write in the paper. “However, its feasibility remains subject to key engineering challenges, including plasma stability, heat dissipation, and operational longevity under deep-space radiation.” They add that, while advances are being made for fusion-based propulsion, it’s still unclear whether it can support long-duration missions and provide power for onboard instruments.

The second concept builds on existing solar sail technology, which is still experimental in its own right. Solar sails are powered by photons from the Sun, harnessing energy produced by light and using it to propel spacecraft forward. The researchers suggest coating the solar sails with material that, when heated, releases molecules or atoms and provides propulsion in a process known as thermal desorption.

The solar sail, assisted by Jupiter’s gravity, could reach Sedna in seven years due to its ability to continuously accelerate without the need to carry heavy fuel, according to the paper. The idea does come with its own set of challenges. “While solar sailing has been extensively studied for deep-space applications, its feasibility for a Sedna mission requires assessment in terms of long-duration structural integrity, propulsion efficiency, and power availability for science operations,” the paper reads.

Despite a slight time advantage, the solar sail mission would only allow for a flyby of Sedna, while the DFD engine could insert a spacecraft into the dwarf planet’s orbit for a longer mission. Either mission would provide us with the first direct observations of the previously unexplored region and help scientists better understand the larger boundary that houses the solar system.

It only took Ed Albin a few steps on June 29 to spot it as he wandered onto an empty construction site about 45 minutes southeast of Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia.

“Oh my God,” he said, crouching down to take a look at his find. “Oh my God.”

Perched on the dirt, like it just fell from the sky, was not just any old rock. It was a chunk of the Georgia fireball that had blazed across the sky on June 26 and disintegrated 43km (27 miles) above West Forest, in Covington, on its way southeast.

In a floppy sun hat and pink shirt, Albin tested the meteorite with a rare earth magnet attached to a metal pole. It gave a faint hint of magnetic attraction, its nickel iron flecks pulling it toward the magnet – proof of its descent from outer space.

Another hunter, Sonny Clary, ran over to take a look.

“Millions of years flying in outer space,” he said in awe. “How cool is that?”

An unexpectedly strong solar storm rocked our planet on April 23, 2023, sparking auroras as far south as southern Texas in the U.S. and taking the world by surprise.

Two days earlier, the Sun blasted a coronal mass ejection (CME) – a cloud of energetic particles, magnetic fields, and solar material – toward Earth. Space scientists took notice, expecting it could cause disruptions to Earth’s magnetic field, known as a geomagnetic storm. But the CME wasn’t especially fast or massive, and it was preceded by a relatively weak solar flare, suggesting the storm would be minor. But it became severe.

Using NASA heliophysics missions, new studies of this storm and others are helping scientists learn why some CMEs have more intense effects – and better predict the impacts of future solar eruptions on our lives.

Why Was This Storm So Intense?

A paper published in the Astrophysical Journal on March 31 suggests the CME’s orientation relative to Earth likely caused the April 2023 storm to become surprisingly strong.

The researchers gathered observations from five heliophysics spacecraft across the inner solar system to study the CME in detail as it emerged from the Sun and traveled to Earth.

They noticed a large coronal hole near the CME’s birthplace. Coronal holes are areas where the solar wind – a stream of particles flowing from the Sun – floods outward at higher than normal speeds.

“The fast solar wind coming from this coronal hole acted like an air current, nudging the CME away from its original straight-line path and pushing it closer to Earth’s orbital plane,” said the paper’s lead author, Evangelos Paouris of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “In addition to this deflection, the CME also rotated slightly.”

Paouris says this turned the CME’s magnetic fields opposite to Earth’s magnetic field and held them there – allowing more of the Sun’s energy to pour into Earth’s environment and intensifying the storm.

Cool Thermosphere

Meanwhile, NASA’s GOLD (Global-scale Observations of Limb and Disk) mission revealed another unexpected consequence of the April 2023 storm at Earth.

Before, during, and after the storm, GOLD studied the temperature in the middle thermosphere, a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere about 85 to 120 miles overhead. During the storm, temperatures increased throughout GOLD’s wide field of view over the Americas. But surprisingly, after the storm, temperatures dropped about 90 to 198 degrees Fahrenheit lower than they were before the storm (from about 980 to 1,070 degrees Fahrenheit before the storm to 870 to 980 degrees Fahrenheit afterward).

“Our measurement is the first to show widespread cooling in the middle thermosphere after a strong storm,” said Xuguang Cai of the University of Colorado, Boulder, lead author of a paper about GOLD’s observations published in the journal JGR Space Physics on April 15, 2025.

The thermosphere’s temperature is important, because it affects how much drag Earth-orbiting satellites and space debris experience.

“When the thermosphere cools, it contracts and becomes less dense at satellite altitudes, reducing drag,” Cai said. “This can cause satellites and space debris to stay in orbit longer than expected, increasing the risk of collisions. Understanding how geomagnetic storms and solar activity affect Earth’s upper atmosphere helps protect technologies we all rely on – like GPS, satellites, and radio communications.”

Predicting When Storms Strike

To predict when a CME will trigger a geomagnetic storm, or be “geoeffective,” some scientists are combining observations with machine learning. A paper published last November in the journal Solar Physics describes one such approach called GeoCME.

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence in which a computer algorithm learns from data to identify patterns, then uses those patterns to make decisions or predictions.

Scientists trained GeoCME by giving it images from the NASA/ESA (European Space Agency) SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft of different CMEs that reached Earth along with SOHO images of the Sun before, during, and after each CME. They then told the model whether each CME produced a geomagnetic storm.

Then, when it was given images from three different science instruments on SOHO, the model’s predictions were highly accurate. Out of 21 geoeffective CMEs, the model correctly predicted all 21 of them; of 7 non-geoeffective ones, it correctly predicted 5 of them.

“The algorithm shows promise,” said heliophysicist Jack Ireland of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study. “Understanding if a CME will be geoeffective or not can help us protect infrastructure in space and technological systems on Earth. This paper shows machine learning approaches to predicting geoeffective CMEs are feasible.”

Earlier Warnings

During a severe geomagnetic storm in May 2024 – the strongest to rattle Earth in over 20 years – NASA’s STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) measured the magnetic field structure of CMEs as they passed by.

When a CME headed for Earth hits a spacecraft first, that spacecraft can often measure the CME and its magnetic field directly, helping scientists determine how strong the geomagnetic storm will be at Earth. Typically, the first spacecraft to get hit are one million miles from Earth toward the Sun at a place called Lagrange Point 1 (L1), giving us only 10 to 60 minutes advanced warning.

By chance, during the May 2024 storm, when several CMEs erupted from the Sun and merged on their way to Earth, NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft happened to be between us and the Sun, about 4 million miles closer to the Sun than L1.

A paper published March 17, 2025, in the journal Space Weather reports that if STEREO-A had served as a CME sentinel, it could have provided an accurate prediction of the resulting storm’s strength 2 hours and 34 minutes earlier than a spacecraft could at L1.

According to the paper’s lead author, Eva Weiler of the Austrian Space Weather Office in Graz, “No other Earth-directed superstorm has ever been observed by a spacecraft positioned closer to the Sun than L1.”

An international publication led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory highlights how upgrading current plankton models is critical to understanding the scale of global climate issues. 

Plankton may be small, but they power the planet. feeding marine life and underpinning global biogeochemical cycles. Yet the models used to simulate their influence on ocean ecosystems have not kept pace with developments in understanding of how biology and ecology functions, according to a new publication led by PML’s Professor Kevin Flynn. 

Plankton models form the core of marine ecosystem simulators, used from regional resource and ecosystem management through to climate change projections, and are essential for us to predict what the future may hold for our planet, and prepare accordingly. 

However, in the perspectives paper, ‘More realistic plankton simulation models will improve projections of ocean ecosystem responses to global change’, published July 1 in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, a team of over 30 international experts argue that plankton models need updating to reflect contemporary knowledge, requiring urgent joint attention from both empiricists and modelers. 

“Plankton are mainly microscopic organisms that grow in the ocean (and also in inland waters) that support the base of the food chain. No plankton—no fish, no sharks, no whales, no seals, no coral, etc. However, the diversity of the plankton is critical; that biodiversity cannot be best compressed into just a few groups, yet invariably that is what happens in models,” said Flynn.

“Additionally, photosynthetic members of plankton play a role similar in magnitude to those of plants on land in producing oxygen and fixing carbon dioxide. They have had a transformational impact on how Earth evolved, and are likely to have a huge role in how our planet responds to climate change. ”

Given that plankton play such a vital role in the natural processes of our planet, plankton models are central to our understanding of how oceans respond to global change. But the authors warn these tools do not sufficiently reflect what science now knows about plankton physiology, diversity, and their roles in ecosystem functioning. 

“We’re using simulation tools built on 30 to 50-year-old concepts to understand the most complex and rapidly changing ecosystems on Earth. And that’s a real problem – not just for science, but for policy and for wider society. We need to be sure that models describe the ecophysiology of these organisms in a realistic manner,” explains Professor Flynn. 

This disconnect could have serious consequences, from underestimating biodiversity shifts to missing key drivers of marine productivity and carbon cycling. Using models with over-simplified conceptual cores runs the risk of getting the “right” results (aligning with what data are available) for the wrong reasons, giving a false sense of confidence for using such models in projecting into the future. 

The paper calls for a transformation in how plankton are modeled and how modelers and empiricists work together. Among the key recommendations are: 

• Greater collaboration between empirical scientists and modelers, especially during model development 
• Better accounting for aspects of real-world ecological complexity, known to be of critical importance, in core model design 
• New tools that allow engagement with the development of simulation models by scientists that lack specialist coding skills 
• Investment in “digital twin” platforms for plankton research – new-generation models that can simulate realistic biological processes and inform decision-making under global change 

The authors urge the scientific community to treat modeling as a core tool in plankton ecology and in teaching activities – just as molecular biology revolutionized the science from the 1980s onward, so too must simulation modeling become embedded in plankton research. 

This work was supported by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council as part of the “Simulating Plankton” project, contributing to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) initiative.

Using an innovative digital fossil-mining approach, paleontologists analyzed more than 250 fossil beaks from 40 ancient squid species. Their results suggest that the radical shift from heavily shelled, slowly moving cephalopods to soft-bodied forms did not result from the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, around 66 million years ago; early squids had already formed large populations, and their biomass exceeded that of ammonites and fishes; they pioneered the modern-type marine ecosystem as intelligent, fast swimmers.

Squids are the most diverse and globally distributed group of marine cephalopods in the modern ocean, where they play a vital role in ocean ecosystems as both predators and prey.

Their evolutionary success is widely considered to be related to the loss of a rigid external shell, which was a key trait of their cephalopod ancestors.

However, their evolutionary origins remain obscure due to the rarity of fossils from soft-bodied organisms.

The fossil record of squids begins only around 45 million years ago, with most specimens consisting of just fossilized statoliths — tiny calcium carbonite structures involved in balance.

The lack of early fossils has led to speculation that squids diversified after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago.

While molecular analyses of living species have offered estimates of squid divergence times, the absence of earlier fossils has made these estimates highly uncertain.

In the new study, Hokkaido University paleontologist Shin Ikegami and colleagues addressed these gaps using digital fossil-mining, which uses high-resolution grinding tomography and advanced image processing to digitally scan entire rocks as stacked cross-sectional images to reveal hidden fossils as detailed 3D models.

They applied this technique to Cretaceous-age carbonate rocks from Japan, uncovering 263 fossilized squid beaks, with specimens spanning 40 species across 23 genera and five families.

The findings show that squids originated roughly 100 million years ago, near the boundary between the Early and Late Cretaceous, and rapidly diversified thereafter.

According to the authors, the previously hidden fossil record greatly extends the known origins of both major squid groups — Oegopsida by about 15 million years and Myopsida by about 55 million years.

Early Oegopsids displayed distinct anatomical traits that disappeared in later species, suggesting swift morphological evolution, while Myopsids already resembled modern forms.

The study also suggests that Late Cretaceous squids were more abundant and often larger than coexisting ammonites and bony fishes, an ecological dominance that predates the radiation of bony fishes and marine mammals by over 30 million years, making them among the first intelligent, fast swimmers to shape modern ocean ecosystems.

“In both number and size, these ancient squids clearly prevailed the seas,” Dr. Ikegami said.

“Their body sizes were as large as fish and even bigger than the ammonites we found alongside them.”

“This shows us that squids were thriving as the most abundant swimmers in the ancient ocean.”

“These findings change everything we thought we knew about marine ecosystems in the past,” said Dr. Yasuhiro Iba, also from Hokkaido University.

“Squids were probably the pioneers of fast and intelligent swimmers that dominate the modern ocean.”

The study was published in the journal Science.

_____

Shin Ikegami et al. 2025. Origin and radiation of squids revealed by digital fossil-mining. Science 388 (6754): 1406-1409; doi: 10.1126/science.adu6248

What minerals within the grain samples from asteroid Ryugu that returned to Earth can teach scientists about this intriguing asteroid and the rest of the solar system? This is what a recent study published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science hopes to address as a team of scientists from academia and research institutions in Japan investigated the source of a rare mineral within the grain samples from asteroid Ryugu. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand not only the formation and evolution of asteroid Ryugu, but of the early solar system.

For the study, the researchers identified the mineral djerfisherite, which contains potassium, iron, and nickel, and surprised the researchers with its appearance as the presence of djerfisherite within Ryugu grains is hypothesized to not be possible due to Rygug’s formation processes. This process included Ryugu forming from a larger planetary body that existed between 1.8 to 2.9 million years after the formation of the solar system, approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Ryugu is hypothesized to have formed in the outer solar system where it’s much colder, whereas djerfisherite is hypothesized to have formed in the inner solar under increased temperatures. Thus, the puzzlement behind its appearance.

Microscopic image of the sample where djerfisherite was found. (Credit: Hiroshima University/Masaaki Miyahara)

Dr. Masaaki Miyahara, who is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering at Hiroshima University and lead author of the study noted, “The discovery of djerfisherite in a Ryugu grain suggests that materials with very different formation histories may have mixed early in the solar system’s evolution, or that Ryugu experienced localized, chemically heterogeneous conditions not previously recognized. This finding challenges the notion that Ryugu is compositionally uniform and opens new questions about the complexity of primitive asteroids.”

While further research is necessary to better understand the origins of djerfisherite with Ryugu, its presence could unlock additional secrets into the history of the early solar system and how it formed and evolved.

How will asteroid Ryugu continue to teach scientists about the early solar system in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Sources: Meteoritics & Planetary Science, EurekAlert!