Category: 7. Science

Key Facts

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Big Number

6.59%. That’s the percentage of Martian material on Earth that this meteorite accounts for. The 400 recognized Martian meteorites have a combined total weight of roughly 825 pounds, meaning NWA 16788 makes up almost 7% of all Martian material ever found on our planet.

Surprising Fact

Only about 15 meteorites are discovered in North America per year, according to Sotheby’s. .

Tangent

Until NWA 16788 goes up for sale, the Fukang meteorite holds the title of the most expensive ever offered at auction. The specimen was found in 2000 in China and is classified as a pallasite—a type of stony–iron meteorite with olivine crystals. It’s thought to be over 4.5 million years old, possibly older than Earth, and weighs more than 2,200 pounds. In 2008, a 925-pound slice of the Fukang meteorite was valued at around $2 million and put up for auction by Bonhams in New York. It didn’t sell.

Further Reading

ForbesWhite House Could Jeopardize Mars Missions By Slashing NASA’s FundingBy Kevin Holden PlattForbesUpdated Mars Vision From Elon Musk, SpaceX Hits Different Now, Matters MoreBy Eric MackForbesWe Finally Know Why Mars Is Red, Scientists SayBy Jamie CarterForbesMars’ Small Mass Still Puzzles Planetary ScientistsBy Bruce Dorminey

The MTG-S1 satellite, which was aboard the launch, will be used to provide improved data for weather forecasting and storm prediction.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and SpaceX successfully launched a rocket yesterday (1 July) containing instruments for two ESA Earth observation missions.

Aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 that launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US, was the second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites along with the first instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission.

Shortly after liftoff, ground control acquired the satellite’s signal, followed by confirmation of the deployment of the satellite’s solar arrays, which according to the ESA indicated that the mission now has sufficient power.

The MTG-Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite – the first hyperspectral sounding instrument placed in geostationary orbit by a European-led mission – is designed to provide improved data for weather forecasting and storm detection. The MTG mission already has one satellite in orbit – the MTG-Imager.

The MTG-S1 is equipped with an instrument called an infrared sounder, which comprises a complex imaging spectrometer that can detect the distribution, circulation and temperature of water vapour in the atmosphere.

According to the ESA, the instrument is designed to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases that are then used to generate 3D maps of the atmosphere, which the ESA says improves the accuracy of MTG’s weather prediction.

More specifically, the MTG-S1 will provide a profile of temperature and moisture at different altitudes over Europe every 30 minutes as well as data on aerosols, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide over Europe and Africa every 60 minutes.

Phil Evans, director general of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) – which is operating the MTG spacecraft – said that MTG-S1 will provide data that will support the detection of signs of atmospheric instability “even before clouds begin to form”.

“Combined with data from the MTG imaging satellites it will, for the first time, offer a space-based view of the full life cycle of convective storms,” he said. “This will provide tremendous support to national meteorological services in carrying out their vital work, helping to save lives, reduce disruption and strengthen resilience.”

Also on board

Mounted on the MTG-S1 satellite is an instrument that will be used for the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which is the first mission to monitor European air quality from geostationary orbit.

The instrument will use its ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared (UVN) imaging spectrometer – which will be in a fixed position focused on Europe and northern Africa – to measure pollution every 60 minutes.

The UVN spectrometer will provide high-resolution data on gases that affect the quality of the air we breathe, including a wide range of atmospheric trace gases and pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide and formaldehyde.

“Sentinel-4 brings something truly new to the Copernicus family of Sentinel Earth observation satellites, and we at ESA are incredibly proud to have contributed to bringing the mission through development to launch,” said Giorgio Bagnasco, the ESA’s Sentinel-4 project manager.

“This mission has an incredibly sensitive and precise instrument, which will transform how we predict atmospheric pollution and understand air quality trends.”

Toward the end of last year, the ESA launched the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, with the satellite designed to deliver high-resolution radar imagery to monitor Earth’s changing environment.

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The 2025 Buck Moon rises on 10 July, marking the seventh full Moon of the year, and as was the case with June’s Strawberry Moon, it’s going to be a low one!

Exact timings and locations will depend on your location, but broadly speaking the Buck Moon will rise in the southeast from about 10pm local time.

And it really is a low Moon, because it’s located in the horizon-grazing constellation Sagittarius, in the middle of a star pattern that’s known as the Teapot.

Find out when the next full Moon is visible and sign up to the BBC Sky at Night Magazine e-newsletter for weekly stargazing advice delivered to your inbox.

What’s so special about the Buck Moon?

On the face of it, there’s nothing particularly special or distinctive about one month’s full Moon compared to any other full Moon of the year.

Be it a supermoon or a ‘micromoon’, or any other defining feature of a particular full Moon, they all look largely the same.

It’s the little things that make the difference, from one full Moon to the next.

Perhaps the full Moon you’re looking at is close to a bright star. Perhaps it’s low down to the horizon and so looks oddly huge, or slightly orange.

While the full Moon always just a regular full Moon, regardless of hype or whichever nickname it happens to have been given, the conditions under which we see it, and what’s in the sky around it, can vary considerably from one to the next.

The Buck Moon is so-called because it’s July’s full Moon, and that’s when male deers’ – ‘bucks’ – antlers begin to grow.

And that’s it. Nothing more than that. Don’t expect the Moon itself to look vastly different just because it’s called a Buck Moon.

What is worth noting about this full Moon, however, is that it will be right in the middle of an informal star pattern known as the Teapot.

Buck Moon and the Teapot, July 2025

The night sky is divided into 88 formally recognised constellations.

But beyond these formally recognised constellations, there are also informal star patterns that have become favourites among seasoned stargazers over the years.

Just as most nebulae seem to have a nickname of their own – ever noticed how so many nebulae seem to look like animals? – there are a few star patterns, known as asterisms, that are well-known among stargazers, even though not formally recognised.

The most famous example is probably the Plough, or Big Dipper, which isn’t a constellation per se; rather a star pattern within the larger, formally-recognised constellation of Ursa Major.

And this month’s Buck Moon will be right in the middle of one of those asterisms: the Teapot asterism within the constellation Sagittarius.

Like Sagittarius itself, the Teapot never really rises far above the horizon for those of us on more northerly latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

If you’re in the UK, for example, the Teapot remains very close to the horizon, whenever it’s visible.

But further south in the USA – Texas, for example – you’ll see the Teapot and Sagittarius itself rise much higher in the sky.

However, on 10 July that bright full Moon will wash out many of the stars around it, meaning the Teapot may be tricky to see.

But now you know it’s there, you can return to it later in the month and explore it fully when the Moon’s out of the way.

There are lots of deep-sky objects in the Teapot asterism, and during the summer months, that region of the sky plays host to the bright core of the Milky Way.

Some even say the glittering band of the Milky Way looks like steam rising from the Teapot’s spout!

Observing the Buck Moon

As for observing the Buck Moon – a full Moon – itself, opinion is divided.

Many astronomers and stargazers bemoan the sight of a full Moon because it washes out the rest of the sky around it.

That makes it difficult to see things like deep-sky objects, meteors and fainter stars.

Nevertheless, the sight of a bright full Moon is amazing in and of itself, and there are plenty of things to look out for, such as the Moon illusion.

Or whether the full Moon close to the horizon – as this one will be – appears slightly orange-coloured.

For more info, read our guide on how to make the most of a full Moon.

And read our guides on how to photograph a full Moon and how to photograph the Moon with a smartphone camera.

If you do manage to capture an image of the Buck Moon, let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com

By Carolyn Bernhardt

Since it was first detected in New York in 1996, the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) has been an insidious threat to healthy hardwood trees nationwide. The striking black-and-white invader’s offspring tunnel deep into tree trunks as larvae, affecting beloved species like maple, birch, and elm. Today, managers mostly rely on cutting down infested trees and destroying them to curb the beetles’ spread.

But what if novel defensive strategies were lurking in nature? A new article published in June in Environmental Entomology reviews a promising lineup of microbial enemies—fungi, bacteria, and nematodes—that could help suppress Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) outbreaks. It’s the first comprehensive look at these natural biocontrol agents, and, according to lead author Ann Hajek, Ph.D., professor emerita at Cornell University, it’s long overdue.

“I was stunned that we had never written a review about this,” she says. When collaborating on a different review paper focused on parasitoids, Hajek noticed “there was far too much information about studies of pathogens” to merge the topics into a single review. That realization led to this second, standalone review focused squarely on these microbial enemies known as entomopathogens.

Fungal Frontlines

Among the most promising tools are insect-killing fungi, especially Beauveria and Metarhizium species. These fungi infect the beetles externally, their spores latching onto the beetle, entering the body, and eventually killing the beetle. In trials, beetles exposed to these fungi lived shorter lives, laid fewer eggs, and could pass pathogens to their offspring.

Researchers eventually developed a solution to strategically infect beetles: wrapping tree trunks with fungus-covered bands. A Japanese company had already commercialized fungal bands to manage related beetles in orchards. “We started with information about the Japanese product and adapted what we developed for ALB,” Hajek says.

But there was a hitch: The U.S. has prioritized eradication, not management. “The ALB populations in the U.S. were very low and scattered,” Hajek says. Once a tree is confirmed as infested, it’s swiftly cut down and chipped. That means U.S. researchers had no access to sustained beetle populations for field trials, so most of this work has had to take place in China, where ALB is native.

Hajek’s review combines findings from research conducted by others with studies she and colleagues have conducted in recent years. In these studies, field trials were successful, but some challenges emerged. The fungi require some moisture to work effectively, but ALB populations in China occurred in very dry regions. So, after several unsuccessful seasons with too few beetles or too-dry weather, the team discontinued field trials in China. In the U.S., testing shifted to evaluating how long the fungal bands remained viable outdoors, with researchers bringing samples back to Cornell’s quarantine lab to test infection potential.

Importantly, all tests in the U.S. used native or EPA-approved fungal strains—never imported ones. “We realized we needed to use U.S. isolates or fungi already approved by the EPA to develop a viable ALB control method,” Hajek says.

Hajek notes that these methods aren’t standalone solutions for eradication. But, she says, they could be powerful tools if ALB becomes more widespread or more complex to contain, especially if paired with other potential and emerging strategies, like pheromone lures to draw beetles to the bands.

Other Contenders

While fungi target adult beetles, tiny parasitic worms known as entomopathogenic nematodes set their sights on the larvae. Two species—Steinernema carpocapsae and S. feltiae—proved most effective in lab trials. These nematodes crawl into beetle tunnels and are especially attracted to beetle droppings. Once inside, the nematodes kill ALB larvae within days.

The team also tested Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a bacterium already used in many natural biopesticides. But because ALB larvae live deep inside trees and rarely feed on exposed surfaces, Bt isn’t currently practical for field use. Another candidate, Nosema glabripennis, a microsporidium found infecting beetle larvae in China, hasn’t yet been detected in U.S. ALB populations, but scientists are still searching.

Why Aren’t These Tools in Use?

Despite the promise of these natural enemies for managing Asian longhorned beetle, fungal bands or nematodes have not been deployed more broadly in the U.S. because of the country’s aggressive and largely successful eradication approach through other means. Outbreaks remain relatively rare and localized, thanks to vigilant public reporting and swift tree removal. Biological controls like fungal bands are more useful for population suppression than eradication. For now, they remain a backup plan—tools that could be scaled up if outbreaks worsen or if managers need spot treatment options to supplement other control measures.

Hajek believes the U.S. could follow Japan’s lead, where fungal bands are already commercialized and in use. “I think it would be possible for industry in the U.S. to do this too, when needed,” she says.

Even in retirement, Hajek remains passionate about this particular beetle battle. She credits citizen scientists for playing a crucial role. “The last I knew, all ALB infestations were first found by the public! So, the public has been super important to detecting ALB in the U.S.,” she says.

In the ongoing fight against this tree-killing invader, fungi, worms, and microbes may not be miracle cures—but they’re powerful potential allies waiting in the wings.

Carolyn Bernhardt, M.A., is a freelance science writer and editor based in Portland, Oregon. Email: carolynbernhardt11@gmail.com.

Related

Once native to the rocky shores of Jeju Island, the top shell Turbo sazae is now moving north. Scientists at KIOST have linked the snail’s shifting range to rising sea temperatures driven by climate change.

Genetic evidence supports the snails’ expansion, showing shared ancestry between eastern and southern Korean populations.

A research paper published in the journal Animals reveals that this shift is not just recent. It is tied to deeper evolutionary history and ocean current dynamics.

“Climate change-driven rises in sea temperatures are a core variable in the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems,” said KIOST President Hyi Seung Lee.

Snails with shared ancestry

The researchers collected samples from six locations, including Jeju and the East Sea. Using mitochondrial DNA (COI), the team built haplotype maps to assess relatedness.

A dominant genetic type, called EJ1, appeared in 60% of Jeju individuals and 50% of East Sea ones. This strong overlap suggests these regions share more than just warm waters. They share a common genetic base.

Bayesian analysis dated the most recent common ancestor between these populations to between 9.7 and 23.3 million years ago.

Ocean currents and snail dispersal

The ancestral link between the snails reflects a long evolutionary history shaped by currents like the Kuroshio and Tsushima.

These ocean currents are central to the story. They carry larvae north during early planktonic stages. Turbo sazae larvae live in open water for 3 to 5 days before settling. That short window is enough to disperse widely along current paths.

This dispersal helps maintain genetic continuity between distant populations. That is why genetic differentiation between Jeju and the East Sea is low.

The study’s FST values and AMOVA results confirm that most genetic variation occurs within, not between, these groups.

Unique regions still shape genes

Despite shared ancestry, some sites showed early signs of divergence. Populations at Dokdo and Wangdolcho had site-specific haplotypes.

These locations have complex underwater topography and eddies that may trap larvae. This can limit outside gene flow and shape unique traits over time.

Dokdo, for instance, rises steeply from the ocean floor and is shaped by dynamic currents. These geographic features might create local barriers that influence how genes move. More research could clarify whether such structures truly restrict connectivity.

Warmer waters weaken snail immunity

Earlier studies suspected diet changes caused population drops in Jeju. Researchers thought urchin barrens affected feeding behavior. But recent findings show diet had little impact on physiology or reproduction.

Instead, warming waters weakened the snail’s immune function. In other words, climate change was the real driver of the snail’s population decline around Jeju.

This finding came from a second study published in the journal Marine Environmental Research. The study confirmed that higher sea temperatures compromise the snail’s immunity and make it more vulnerable to environmental stress.

Ocean warming shifts sea life habitats

Between 2009 and 2018, Turbo sazae expanded north at a rate of 12.4 km per year. That is a fast pace for a marine mollusk. It aligns with rising sea surface temperatures of 0.38°C per decade in the region. Warmer waters now support life where it once could not.

A marine desertification phenomenon called barren ground is also changing habitats. These zones lose kelp and become covered with white algae. Such shifts leave snails like T. sazae with fewer choices. They must move or decline.

Climate change and snail conservation

The study’s findings have practical implications. They show that Jeju acts as a source for new East Sea populations.

The shared genetics suggest that populations should not be managed as isolated units. Instead, integrated approaches should reflect their connectivity.

Yet, local differences still matter. Management plans must protect unique habitats, especially where signs of early genetic differentiation emerge. Monitoring, habitat conservation, and tracking larval dispersal are essential steps.

Snails adjusting to climate change

As the sea changes with the climate, snails and other inhabitants are changing too. Turbo sazae is adjusting, relocating, and surviving.

The science behind this shift not only charts the path of one species. It gives a broader glimpse into how ocean warming is reshaping sea life.

KIOST President Hyi Seung Lee said the findings will help deepen scientific understanding of how sea life distribution is changing and support ongoing efforts to protect marine ecosystems.

The study is published in the journal Animals.

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The Himawari-8 and -9 satellites, launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively, were developed to monitor global atmospheric phenomena through use of their multispectral Advanced Himawari Imagers (AHIs). The University of Tokyo team led by visiting researcher Gaku Nishiyama saw the opportunity to use the cutting-edge sensor data for spaceborne observations of Venus, which is coincidentally captured by the AHIs near the Earth’s rim.

Observing temporal temperature variations in the cloud tops of Venus is essential to understand its atmospheric dynamics and related phenomena, such as thermal tides and planetary-scale waves. Obtaining data for these phenomena presents multiple challenges, as Nishiyama explained. “The atmosphere of Venus has been known to exhibit year-scale variations in reflectance and wind speed; however, no planetary mission has succeeded in continuous observation for longer than 10 years due to their mission lifetimes,” he said. “Ground-based observations can also contribute to long-term monitoring, but their observations generally have limitations due to the Earth’s atmosphere and sunlight during the daytime.”

Meteorological satellites on the other hand appear suited to fill this gap with their longer mission lifetimes (the Himawari-8 and -9 satellites are scheduled for operation until 2029). The AHIs allow multiband infrared coverage, which has been limited in planetary missions to date, essential for retrieving temperature information from different altitudes, along with low-noise and frequent observation. Aiming to demonstrate this potential to contribute to Venus science, the team investigated the observed temporal dynamics of the Venusian atmosphere and provided a comparative analysis with previous datasets. “We believe this method will provide precious data for Venus science because there might not be any other spacecraft orbiting around Venus until the next planetary missions around 2030,” said Nishiyama.

The team first established a data archive by extracting all Venus images from the collected AHI datasets, identifying 437 occurrences in total. Taking into account background noise and apparent size of Venus in the captured images, they were able to track the temporal variation in cloud-top temperature during the periods where the geostationary satellite, Venus and the Earth lined up in a row.

The retrieved temporal variations in brightness temperatures were then analyzed on both year and day scales and compared for all infrared bands to investigate variability of thermal tides and planetary-scale waves. Variation in thermal tide amplitude was confirmed from the obtained dataset. The results also confirmed change in amplitude of planetary waves in the atmosphere with time, appearing to decrease with altitude. While definitive conclusions on the physics behind the detected variations were challenging due to the limited temporal resolution of the AHI data, variations in the thermal tide amplitude appeared possibly linked to decadal variation in the Venus atmosphere structure.

In addition to successfully applying the Himawari data to planetary observations, the team was further able to use the data to identify calibration discrepancies in data from previous planetary missions.

Nishiyama is already looking at implications of the study beyond Venus’ horizon. “I think that our novel approach in this study successfully opened a new avenue for long-term and multiband monitoring of solar system bodies. This includes the moon and Mercury, which I also study at present. Their infrared spectra contain various information on physical and compositional properties of their surface, which are hints at how these rocky bodies have evolved until the present.” The prospect of accessing a range of geometric conditions untethered from the limitations of ground-based observations is clearly an exciting one. “We hope this study will enable us to assess physical and compositional properties, as well as atmospheric dynamics, and contribute to our further understanding of planetary evolution in general.”

Funding: This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP22K21344, 23H00150, and 23H01249, and JSPS Overseas Research Fellowship.

Angular momentum is a fundamental quantity in physics that describes the rotational motion of objects. In quantum physics, it encompasses both the intrinsic spin of particles and their orbital motion around a point. These properties are essential for understanding a wide range of systems, from atoms and molecules to complex materials and high-energy particle interactions.

When a magnetic field is applied to a quantum system, particle spins typically align with or against the field. This well-known effect, known as spin polarization, leads to observable phenomena such as magnetization. Until now, it was widely believed that spin played the dominant role in how particles respond to magnetic fields. However, new research challenges this long-held view.

In this vein, Assistant Professor Kazuya Mameda of Tokyo University of Science, Japan, in collaboration with Professor Kenji Fukushima of School of Science, The University of Tokyo and Dr. Koichi Hattori of Zhejiang University, found that under strong magnetic fields, the orbital motion of magnetovortical matter becomes more significant than spin effects, leading to reversing the overall direction of angular momentum. The study will be published in Physical Review Letters on July 01, 2025.

“It was previously believed that most microscopic phenomena in a magnetic field were governed by spin angular momentum—a physical quantity characterizing the intrinsic rotational motion of microscopic particles,” explains Dr. Mameda. “However, this study found that in a strong magnetic field, orbital motion can overwhelm spin effects, reversing the direction of rotational motion from what was previously believed.”

The researchers studied fermionic systems—specifically Dirac fermions— subjected to both strong magnetic fields and rotation. By ensuring gauge invariance and thermodynamic stability in their theoretical framework, they demonstrated that orbital contributions to bulk properties can exceed spin contributions.

Unlike spin, which aligns with the magnetic field, the orbital angular momentum aligns according to Lenz’s law—opposite to the direction of the magnetic field. As the magnetic field intensifies, the charge density from the orbital-rotation coupling and orbital angular momentum grow twice the magnitude of their spin counterparts, but with opposite sign.

This reversal in total angular momentum reshapes our understanding of magnetovortical matter and links its behavior to a broader class of quantum effects known as anomaly-induced transports. The findings also pave the way for simulations using lattice QCD—a powerful computational tool for studying strongly interacting particles such as quarks and gluons under extreme conditions.

The discovery that a strong magnetic field can reverse angular momentum in quantum systems challenges established theories. It highlights the previously underestimated role of orbital motion, showing it to be more influential than spin in certain regimes. This insight could spark advances in groundbreaking technologies, particularly in orbitronics, a field dedicated to manipulating the orbital motion of electrons.

“Total angular momentum reversal under strong magnetic fields has been overlooked across fields from materials science to astrophysics. Our findings redefine the foundational physics of modern physics and point to new frontiers in orbitronics—where controlling electron orbital motion could lead to innovative device applications,” concludes Dr. Mameda.

There is a growing buzz in the astronomy community about a new object with a hyperbolic trajectory that is moving toward the inner Solar System.

Early on Wednesday, the European Space Agency confirmed that the object, tentatively known as A11pl3Z, did indeed have interstellar origins.

“Astronomers may have just discovered the third interstellar object passing through the Solar System!” the agency’s Operations account shared on Blue Sky. “ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world.”

Only recently identified, astronomers have been scrambling to make new observations of the object, which is presently just inside the orbit of Jupiter and will eventually pass inside the orbit of Mars when making its closest approach to the Sun this October. Astronomers are also looking at older data to see if the object showed up in earlier sky surveys.

An engineer at the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, David Rankin, said recent estimates of the object’s eccentricity are about 6. A purely circular orbit has an eccentricity value of 0, and anything above 1 is hyperbolic. Essentially, this is a very, very strong indication that A11pl3Z originated outside of the Solar System.