Category: 7. Science

  • Bonkers NASA Mission Aims to Drop Six Helicopters Onto Mars From Space

    Bonkers NASA Mission Aims to Drop Six Helicopters Onto Mars From Space

    Defense tech company AeroVironment and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have shown off a wild concept for deploying six helicopters above the surface of Mars to scout for water and possible human landing sites.

    The concept, dubbed “Skyfall,” builds on NASA’s extremely successful and revolutionary Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which became the first manmade object to achieve powered flight on another planet in 2021. It flew a whopping 72 times over three years, vastly exceeding expectations.

    AeroVironment’s plan is to “deploy six scout helicopters on Mars, where they would explore many of the sites selected by NASA and industry as top candidate landing sites for America’s first Martian astronauts,” according to a press release.

    As seen in a flashy animation, the “Skyfall Maneuver” will attempt to deploy the six rotorcraft from a much larger spacecraft during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, making it a highly ambitious endeavor. However, the plan would also “eliminate the necessity for a landing platform — traditionally one of the most expensive, complex and risky elements of any Mars mission,” per the company.

    Whether such a venture will receive enough funding to be realized remains unclear at best. While AeroVironment has kicked off internal investments ahead of a planned 2028 launch, budgetary restraints at NASA could pose a major challenge. The Trump administration is planning to massively slash the space agency’s budget in what critics are calling an “existential threat” to science, making anything at NASA currently an uncertain bet. Just last week, NASA’s JPL reportedly held a “going out of business sale” for existing satellites, signaling tough times ahead.

    It’s not the only concept vying to follow up on the tremendous success of Ingenuity. In December, NASA showed off a SUV-sized “Mars Chopper” with six rotor blades that could allow it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day.

    AeroVironment’s leadership claims its Skyfall concept could explore far more of the Red Planet for a fraction of the price, compared to conventional landers and rovers.

    “Skyfall offers a revolutionary new approach to Mars exploration that is faster and more affordable than anything that’s come before it,” said AeroVironment’s head of space ventures, William Pomerantz, in the statement. “With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct — making humanity’s first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer.”

    Skyfall is planning to borrow heavily from its predecessor Ingenuity, including “its lightweight aircraft structure suitable for the thin atmosphere of Mars.”

    “Ingenuity established the United States as the first and only country to achieve powered flight on another planet,” said AeroVironment’s president of autonomous systems, Trace Stevenson. “Skyfall builds on that promise, providing detailed, actionable data from an aerial perspective that will not only be of use planning for future crewed missions, but can also benefit the planetary science community in their search for evidence that life once existed on Mars.”

    AeroVironment has worked on space-based laser communication terminals, as well as ground-based phased array antennas, to improve satellite command and control capabilities. How that expertise will translate to launching and landing six rotorcraft on Mars remains to be seen — but we’ll be rooting for the project.

    More on Mars helicopters: NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized “Mars Chopper” With Six Rotor Blades

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  • ‘Much more complex than conventional models suggest’

    ‘Much more complex than conventional models suggest’

    Researchers have unveiled a powerful new tool that gives unprecedented insight into the stability of Antarctica’s so-called “Doomsday Glacier,” the collapse of which could lead to a catastrophic 11 feet of sea level rise, according to Penn State University.

    “We’ve seen ice shelves break off, but we’ve never seen one grow back,” said Richard Alley, a Penn State geosciences professor. “This new research indicates that we can predict better the point at which these will break off.”

    “It’s helping to establish the early-warning signals,” he explained.

    At 80 miles wide, the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is the world’s widest glacier. In a groundbreaking study, scientists used NASA satellite data to analyze vertical cracks in the ice.

    “We know little about fractures, and their behavior is much more complex than conventional models suggest,” wrote Shujie Wang, a Penn State assistant professor of geography and the study’s lead author.

    These cracks destabilize the ice sheet and are a precursor to massive ice loss. Antarctica presently loses about 136 billion tons of ice every single year, according to NASA.

    Watch now: Does clean energy really cause blackouts?

    The Antarctic ice sheet is of special significance because, unlike sea ice, it sits atop a land mass rather than floating in water. When land ice melts, the water flows into the oceans, causing sea levels to rise.

    If the entire Antarctic ice sheet were to melt, the world’s oceans would rise a civilization-altering 200 feet, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

    If humans continue to release heat-trapping, planet-heating pollution into the atmosphere at current rates, the Antarctic ice sheet could be completely melted by the year 3000, a mere blink in geological time, according to NSIDC.

    Researchers hope that by better understanding these ice sheets and the fractures that break them apart, humans will be better prepared to deal with the impacts of a changing climate.

    The study revealed that the Thwaites Glacier, which helps stabilize the entire Antarctic ice sheet, is melting faster than previously believed, largely because seawater has permeated miles into the ice, according to Scientific American.

    “We really, really need to understand how fast the ice is changing,” said Christine Dow, an associate professor of glaciology at the University of Waterloo who was involved with the study, per Scientific American.

    “We were hoping it would take a hundred, 500 years to lose that ice. A big concern right now is if it happens much faster than that.”

    The best way to reduce the rate at which the Antarctic ice sheet is melting is to significantly reduce the amount of heat-trapping pollution entering the atmosphere.

    While international, national, and state policies have a large role to play in this process, there are plenty of actions that people can take on the local and community level, such as riding a bicycle to taking public transit,driving an electric vehicle, or installing solar panels on their home.

    Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

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  • An Even Scarier Predator Hunted Giant ‘Terror Birds’ in South America

    An Even Scarier Predator Hunted Giant ‘Terror Birds’ in South America

    Sometime between 16 and 11.6 million years ago, a young caiman came upon a tasty snack in modern-day South America. The meal, however, turned out to be rather ambitious, because the croc hadn’t come upon just any old prey.

    It was a phorusrhacid, a large carnivore in its own right, aptly known as a “terror bird.” The now-extinct terror bird wouldn’t have given in without a fight—unless, of course, it was already dead, and the opportunistic croc simply scavenged its dead body. That doesn’t seem to be the case, however. The meeting of the two apex predators played out, and all that’s left of it today is a handful of puncture wounds on a fossilized bone dating back to the Middle Miocene Epoch. For paleontologists, it’s offering rare insights into a prehistoric feeding interaction between two formidable but very different beasts.

    A giant caiman left bite marks on a terror bird bone tens of millions of years ago. © Andres Link, et al., 2025.

    “Evidence of direct trophic [feeding] interactions between apex predators remains as a topic that has been historically understudied,” researchers wrote in a study reconstructing the encounter, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters. “Prey is most often represented by herbivores and other animals that are not on the top of the trophic web,” i.e. non-apex predators, according to the study. This anecdotal account of an “aquatic apex predator feeding on a terrestrial apex predator” adds to our understanding of how complex food webs can be in both modern and ancient vertebrate ecosystems,” the scientists wrote.

    To investigate the prehistoric showdown, the researchers scanned the previously identified terror bird fossil to create a digital model of the puncture wounds. They then turned the tooth marks into negatives to compare them to the teeth of crocodyliforms (a group of predatory reptiles including crocodiles, alligators, and caimans) from La Venta, the fossil hotspot in Colombia where the specimen originates.

    Caiman Eating Terror Bird 2
    The caiman may have scavenged on the already dead body of the terror bird. © Julián Bayona

    “Comparisons with specimens of [modern] black caiman, Melanosuchus niger, suggest that the traces were likely inflicted by a large caimanine, between 4.6 and 4.8 m [15.1 to 17.7 feet] long,” explained the researchers, including University of the Andes’ biologist Andres Link. “In the current fossil assemblage of La Venta, the best match for a large caiman in this size range would be a juvenile or subadult specimen of the giant caimanine P. neivensis, the largest crocodyliform in the La Venta Fauna.”

    Because the bite marks on the terror bird bone don’t show signs of healing, the bird likely did not survive the Purussaurus neivensis’ attack, or was already dead.

    The study ultimately sheds light on an interaction between “some of the most emblematic apex predators in the Miocene of South America,” suggesting that large phorusrhacids may have had more to worry about than researchers previously thought.

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  • See a razor-thin moon shine close to Regulus on July 26

    See a razor-thin moon shine close to Regulus on July 26

    The slender waxing crescent moon will shine near the ‘Kingly’ star Regulus in the constellation Leo on the night of July 26, offering a photogenic — if challenging — target for those with a clear view of the western horizon.

    Look west at sunset to find the razor-thin crescent moon hanging less than 10 degrees above the horizon. Regulus will appear as a blue-white point of light roughly 1 degree to the lower right of the moon’s glowing edge, becoming more prominent as the sun slips further below the horizon.

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  • Scientists Find Evidence That Original Life on Earth Was Assembled From Material in Space

    Scientists Find Evidence That Original Life on Earth Was Assembled From Material in Space

    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

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  • Science retracts ‘arsenic life’ paper; another journal issue on Palestine cancelled; JAMA, NEJM editors decry political interference – Retraction Watch

    Science retracts ‘arsenic life’ paper; another journal issue on Palestine cancelled; JAMA, NEJM editors decry political interference – Retraction Watch

    Dear RW readers, can you spare $25?

    The week at Retraction Watch featured:

    Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up past 500. There are more than 60,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains more than 300 titles. And have you seen our leaderboard of authors with the most retractions lately — or our list of top 10 most highly cited retracted papers? What about The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List?

    Here’s what was happening elsewhere (some of these items may be paywalled, metered access, or require free registration to read):

    • “Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication.” A similar case we covered earlier this year. 
    • Medical progress depends on independent journals to advance science without political interference,” say the editors of NEJM and JAMA.
    • “Alzheimer’s scientist forced to retract paper during his own replication effort.”
    • “AI will soon be able to audit all published research – what will that mean for public trust in science?”
    • “One in six scientific papers mischaracterize work they cite,” study finds.
    • Researchers rely on “‘gut feelings’ of ownership” to “navigate attributional ambiguity” of AI authorship, study finds.
    • A dual submission proposal to address shortage of interdisciplinary data: Researchers suggest papers “be submitted to and peer-reviewed simultaneously by two journals, in different fields, with joint publication under a single DOI.”
    • “AI-Enabled Cheating Points to ‘Untenable’ Peer Review System.”
    • Nature’s move to make peer-review reports public” could “inadvertently fuel skepticism”: correspondence.
    • “The number of published articles significantly outpaces the number of scientists and, hence, available peer reviewers” in the dental research community.
    • Taiwan university educator “allegedly coerced members of the university’s soccer team into participating in experimental procedures, including having blood tests.”
    • “South Korean President Withdraws Minister Over Plagiarism Allegations.”
    • “China’s corruption busters target science sector in crackdown on research funding fraud.”
    • “Is there a strain on peer review? – It’s more complicated than you think,” says a Springer Nature executive.
    • University researcher “raised concerns about research misconduct. Then he lost his job.”
    • Bangladesh University Grants Commission secretary accused of plagiarism in his 2013 PhD thesis.
    • Misidentification of microscopes “may be a tractable signature for flagging problematic” papers, researchers find. Our exclusive on the preprint last year. 
    • A case of a “review mill” at an MDPI journal.
    • “By emphasizing scientific uncertainty above other values, political appointees can block any regulatory action they want to“: More on the ‘Gold Standard’ executive order. 
    • Researchers say their video might help educate medical school residents and students about predatory journals.
    • “Journals Operating Predatory Practices Are Systematically Eroding the Science Ethos”: Researchers look into minimizing their “Operating Space.” 
    • Study aims to “define, collect, and categorize” questionable research practices in psychology.
    • “The COVID-19 pandemic transformed this scientist into a research-integrity sleuth.” A link to a guest post he co-authored for us.
    • NIH limits scientists to six applications per year for AI concerns, and budget cuts could “accelerate the decline” of NIH-funded scientific publications.
    • Psychiatry journals are “inconsistent in their adherence to ethical guidelines for informed consent in case reports,” study finds. 
    • “Fund scholars who tackle urgent issues — from misinformation to error spotting.”
    • “AI, bounties and culture change, how scientists are taking on errors“: The Nature Podcast features our Ivan Oransky.
    • A look at retractions in heart research.
    • Study finds “retractions due to data problems have increased significantly” since 2000. 
    • “Capping APCs May Backfire on NIH,” says sociologist.
    • “How getting tenure changes researchers’ publication habits — and citations.”
    • “The afterlife of a ghost-written paper: How corporate authorship shaped two decades” of safety disclosure for a herbicide.

    We’re hiring!

    Assistant researcher, Retraction Watch Database
    The Assistant Researcher will enter data into an existing database, locate source material from searches through various publishing and indexing platforms or from spreadsheets, and quality-check existing entries as assigned. Learn more and apply here. Deadline: August 15.


    Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at [email protected].


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  • Ladakh’s hot springs could help trace origins of life on Earth, Mars

    Ladakh’s hot springs could help trace origins of life on Earth, Mars

    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.


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  • INSANE simulation shows fleet of NASA choppers dropping down on Mars

    INSANE simulation shows fleet of NASA choppers dropping down on Mars

    Human landing on Mars might become a reality in the coming years. In preparation for that day, NASA and other space agencies have sent several missions to the Red Planet. One of them was the Perseverance rover that carried the Ingenuity helicopter with it in 2021. It became the first chopper to land and take off from the Martian surface. Now, a defence contractor has released a new design concept to succeed the iconic Mars chopper. The plan is to have multiple choppers land on different spots on Mars at the same time. Virginia-based AeroVironment (AV) has partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the Mars chopper plan. Called the Skyfall mission concept, the helicopters will help further plans of landing humans on Mars one day. The Mars helicopters will scout the landscape for the best places for people. Also Read: Unexplainable radio signal defying laws of universe has no clear source. ‘It is a unicorn’

    Six choppers will be released from one capsule on Mars

    As part of the mission, one capsule will be used to release six helicopters. Once out, each helicopter will land independently on the Martian surface. According to AV, the aim is to launch these choppers in 2028. The Skyfall mission will have six choppers being dropped by the landing carrier without actually having to land anywhere. So there would be no need to have a landing platform on the surface. Once released, each helicopter will choose its own location to land independently. Upon touchdown, they will get to work immediately, exploring different parts of the Martian surface. One of their jobs would be to look for the best locations that are most suited for future human missions. Also Read: Expert says interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is alien spacecraft: 3 reasons why he thinks so

    Choppers will click photos and scan under Martian surface

    Each chopper will collect high-resolution images of the surface. They would also deploy radar to look under the surface, to search for potential resources on Mars. “With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct–making humanity’s first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer,” William Pomerantz, head of Space Ventures at AV, said in a statement. Also Read: NO KIDDING! Scientists want to use PAPER PLANE spacecraft for space missions because…

    Ingenuity chopper undertook several trips on Mars after being released in 2021. The 19-inch-tall and 1.8-kilogram helicopter also lifted off independently later, becoming the first powered aircraft to lift off from the surface of another planet. It was originally meant to take five test flights, but it stopped only after a whopping 72 flights. Fourteen of those trips had it travel farther than planned for a total flight time of two hours. Last year, Ingenuity took its last flight when it broke its blades while landing.

    Related Stories

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  • A Sunken Port Beneath the Red Sea May Have Reshaped the Map of Human Migration Out of Africa 20,000 Years Ago

    A Sunken Port Beneath the Red Sea May Have Reshaped the Map of Human Migration Out of Africa 20,000 Years Ago

    New research suggests an ancient trade hub lies beneath Egypt’s Red Sea coast—offering clues to how early civilizations connected Africa to the wider world and influenced patterns of human migration.

    What if one of humanity’s earliest international ports is hidden beneath the Red Sea?

    In a discovery that could dramatically reshape our understanding of ancient trade, migration, and civilization, researchers have identified a region along Egypt’s Foul Bay that may have hosted a thriving coastal city—now submerged under the sea. Named Berenice Aquaterra by scientists, this lost port may have once connected Africa to the Mediterranean, serving as a critical crossroads for early human movement and commerce.

    The finding comes from a study led by Jerome Dobson, professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, and Italian collaborators Giorgio Spada and Gaia Galassi. Published in Comptes Rendus Géoscience, their research uses cutting-edge glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models to simulate ancient coastlines from 30,000 years ago to the present. These reconstructions, combined with DNA and archaeological data, suggest vast areas of land now underwater once hosted early human settlements.

    “We’re not just looking at abstract coastlines,” Dobson said. “We’re potentially looking at the remains of a city that helped move goods, people, and culture between continents.”

    A City Lost to Rising Seas?

    During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) roughly 21,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 125 meters lower than today, exposing large areas along the Red Sea. Foul Bay, now an inlet on Egypt’s eastern coast, was a dry and potentially strategic location—offering a shorter and safer overland route to the Nile River than the longer Suez corridor. Dobson and his team propose that this area could have developed into a port city to facilitate trade between inland Africa and seaborne routes.

    What makes this hypothesis more than just theory is the unusual pattern of coral reefs in Foul Bay—over 300 patch coral formations, many growing on what may be ancient stone foundations. “Coral reefs require hard substrates. If these reefs are sitting on masonry or human-built structures, we could be looking at a submerged archaeological site of global importance,” Dobson noted.

    Reference map showing natural features cited, cities and known routes connecting the Nile River, Foul Bay, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea throughout history.
Credit: Dobson et al.
    Reference map showing natural features cited, cities and known routes connecting the Nile River, Foul Bay, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea throughout history.
    Credit: Dobson et al.

    Rewriting the Map of Ancient Trade

    The potential existence of Berenice Aquaterra challenges traditional views of how early civilizations moved across and beyond Africa. Instead of relying solely on the narrow Suez land bridge, ancient people might have utilized this southern route when sea levels made it viable—connecting to the Nile and eventually reaching the Mediterranean.

    “If proven, this would place Foul Bay as one of the earliest known hubs of human trade,” Dobson said. “It’s like discovering a missing piece of the ancient world’s infrastructure.”

    The area’s historical counterpart, Berenice Troglodytica, became a major Greco-Roman port 2,000 years ago. But this new research suggests that Foul Bay’s significance predates that by thousands of years.

    Underwater Archaeology’s Next Frontier

    Despite centuries of archaeological interest in ancient Egypt, much of the region’s submerged coastline remains unexplored. The researchers are calling for underwater surveys to investigate the coral-covered seabed of Foul Bay.

    “Just because something hasn’t been found doesn’t mean it never existed,” Dobson noted, referencing how the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria remained hidden for centuries—only to be rediscovered underwater near its original location.

    The open-access GIA datasets provided by the team make it easier for researchers across disciplines to pursue their own investigations into humanity’s submerged past.

    “This isn’t just about one city,” Dobson emphasized. “It’s about recognizing that massive portions of human history might be lying just beneath the waves, waiting to be rediscovered.”

    Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.
    Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.

    As climate change continues to reshape our own coastlines, the lessons from Berenice Aquaterra could be more relevant than ever—offering a glimpse into how ancient humans adapted to a world in flux and how much we’ve yet to uncover about our shared origins.

    University of Kansas

    Jerome Eric Dobson, Giorgio Spada, Gaia Galassi, Alternative crossings into and out of Africa since 30,000 BP. Comptes Rendus. Géoscience, Volume 357 (2025), pp. 1-24. dx.doi.org/10.5802/crgeos.273

    Cover Image Credit: Satellite image of Berenice, an ancient port, on the Red Sea coast. A KU researcher asserts new information about Berenice should prompt reexamination of migration into the Nile Valley before or during the Last Glacial Maximum. Coral reefs near Foul Bay might hold more clues, according to Jerome Dobson. NASA

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  • NASA spacecraft snaps a rare photo of Mars and its moons together

    NASA spacecraft snaps a rare photo of Mars and its moons together

    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.

    SEE ALSO:

    A star may have survived partial black hole spaghettification

    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

    Left:
    From a half-million miles away, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft captured Mars with its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in space.
    Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / SwRI

    Right:
    To see a labeled view, swipe the slider above to the left.
    Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / SwRI

    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. 

    Phobos and Deimos

    The Mars Express orbiter caught Phobos, in the foreground, and Deimos on camera together for the first time in November 2009. The right side showcases the raw image; left, after processing.
    Credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

    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. 

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