Category: 7. Science

Mars is commonly known as the Red Planet, but a recent satellite image from the European Space Agency (ESA) displays a vibrant blend of yellows, oranges, and browns. The striking view also highlights an impact crater and four dust devils moving across the terrain.

Taken by the high-resolution camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, the image features Arcadia Planitia — a key region for understanding Mars’ geological past and assessing its potential for future human habitation, reported Space.com.

Located northwest of the solar system’s tallest volcanoes, Arcadia Planitia is notable for its ancient solidified lava flows, estimated to be up to 3 billion years old. Scientists also believe the area contains water ice just beneath the surface, making it a key target for upcoming Mars missions, according to ESA.

The region frequently hosts “dust devils,” which are short-lived, whirlwind-like phenomena formed when warm surface air rises and lifts dust. In the image, four dust devils appear as faint white streaks, crossing from the darker to lighter regions of the plain.

In the lower right corner of the photo, a large impact crater measuring about 9 miles (15 kilometres) wide is visible. The layered patterns surrounding the crater suggest that the ground contained significant water ice at the time of impact. The crater’s relatively intact appearance also indicates it formed recently in geological terms.

Scientists have made an astonishing discovery after finding lobster-like creatures beneath the depths of the Antarctic ice.

It’s hard to comprehend how any living creature can survive freezing cold temperatures, but after drilling more than half a mile below the surface of an ice sheet, experts found an unexpected slow-moving river where animals are living.

The subglacial river has been hidden for millennia but was uncovered during a recent expedition. Researchers drilled over 1,600 feet into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where they found the river below the Ross Ice Shelf.

The river is about as deep as a 30-story building and is a blend of both fresh and seawater, and is slowly travelling towards the ocean.

Expedition leader Huw Horgan explained: “We struck water at the end of the borehole and with the help of our camera, we even discovered a school of lobster-like creatures — 400 kilometres from the open ocean.”

  Craig Stevens

Researchers believe that the river swells around once every decade – this occurs when nearby lakes drain into it. It’s thought the surges in the river could be causing an acceleration of ice melt as it carves out channels in the ice, moving around nutrients that help to sustain life.

The discovery is an important one in terms of our understanding of ice melt and sea level rise.

Experts fear that subglacial rivers such as this may be thinning glaciers from the bottom up, which may make it easier for land-based ice to get into the ocean and speed up sea-level rise, which may increase the risk of flooding in extreme weather and put pressure on food systems.

Why not read…

Mutated tribe can swim to bottom of ocean after developing ‘sea nomad gene’

1,800-year-old tomb discovered with rare treasure inside

‘World’s oldest pyramid’ built 25,000 years ago was not made by humans, archaeologists claim

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100’s free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

A desert site in Egypt known as Whale Valley, or Wadi Al-Hitan, holds more than 400 fossilised whale skeletons that show the remarkable evolutionary journey of whales from land to sea, Live Science reported.

The site, located in the Egyptian Sahara, contains primitive whale remains dating back to the late Eocene epoch — between 55.8 million and 33.9 million years ago — when the area was submerged under the Tethys Ocean, according to UNESCO.

“These fossils represent one of the major stories of evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal,” UNESCO’s website states.

The first major discovery at Whale Valley came in 1902, when paleontologists unearthed a previously unknown whale species, Basilosaurus isis (formerly Zeuglodon isis). This ancient whale grew up to 60 feet (18 metres) long and likely preyed on smaller whales, crushing their skulls before swallowing them whole, according to a 2019 study.

“B. isis had a long snout and was armed with pointed incisors and sharp cheek teeth,” Manja Voss, a marine mammal expert at the Berlin Museum of Natural History and lead author of the 2019 study.

In 1989, a team from the University of Michigan and the Egyptian Geological Museum discovered B. isis fossils with preserved hind limbs, feet and toes — a rare find that confirms whales once had legs, according to a 2023 review. Though modern whales lack hind limbs, they retain pelvic bones, indicating their terrestrial ancestry, University of Hawaii researchers noted.

In 2005, a near-complete B. isis skeleton led UNESCO to declare Whale Valley a World Heritage Site. Since then, more marine fossils have been found, including ancient turtles, sharks, rays, sea cows, and crocodiles, preserved thanks to the area’s arid climate since the Pliocene.

The site now functions as an open-air museum with ongoing research and strict protection.

Mars is often called the Red Planet, but a new satellite image from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveals a mix of swirling yellows, oranges, and browns. The colourful landscape also features an impact crater and four dust devils sweeping across the surface.

Captured by the high-resolution camera aboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, the image showcases Arcadia Planitia — a region crucial to studying Mars’ history and its suitability for future human exploration, reported Space.com.

Located northwest of the solar system’s tallest volcanoes, Arcadia Planitia is notable for its ancient solidified lava flows, estimated to be up to 3 billion years old. Scientists also believe the area contains water ice just beneath the surface, making it a key target for upcoming Mars missions, according to ESA.

The region frequently hosts “dust devils,” which are short-lived, whirlwind-like phenomena formed when warm surface air rises and lifts dust. In the image, four dust devils appear as faint white streaks, crossing from the darker to lighter regions of the plain.

In the lower right corner of the photo, a large impact crater measuring about 9 miles (15 kilometres) wide is visible. The layered patterns surrounding the crater suggest that the ground contained significant water ice at the time of impact. The crater’s relatively intact appearance also indicates it formed recently in geological terms.

In a significant step forward in the search for distant worlds, astronomers have discovered TOI-1846 b, a newly identified super-Earth exoplanet that may be rich in water. Located just 154 light-years away, this planet is nearly twice the size of Earth and orbits a cool red dwarf star. Though not considered habitable due to its high temperatures, TOI-1846 b’s dense, water-rich composition and close orbit offer valuable insights into the formation and evolution of rocky planets beyond our solar system. The discovery was made using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and confirmed with advanced ground-based observations. This planet adds to the growing catalogue of super-Earths that continue to reshape our understanding of planetary diversity in the galaxy.

New super-Earth discovered orbiting red dwarf just 154 light-years away

The new water-rich exoplanet, nearly twice the size of Earth, is orbiting a red dwarf star 154 light-years away. Named TOI-1846 b, this super-Earth may offer insights into the formation and evolution of rocky planets beyond our solar system. The discovery, detailed in a recent study published on the arXiv preprint server, was led by Abderahmane Soubkiou and his team at the Oukaimeden Observatory in Morocco.The planet was initially detected through NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and later confirmed using a combination of ground-based photometry, high-resolution imaging, and spectroscopy.

TOI-1846 b: A water-rich super-Earth with extreme heat and close orbit

According to the reports, TOI-1846 b has a radius of approximately 1.792 times that of Earth and is about 4.4 times more massive. It orbits its host star once every 3.93 days, indicating an extremely close and swift orbit. The planet’s equilibrium temperature is estimated at 568.1 Kelvin (roughly 295°C), ruling out the possibility of surface habitability under known Earth-like conditions.Despite its high temperature, its size and density suggest a potentially water-rich composition, making it of interest to exoplanet researchers. This characteristic positions it among a growing class of rocky exoplanets that may contain substantial water content, possibly beneath thick atmospheres or layered beneath rocky crusts.

How astronomers confirmed TOI-1846 b as a genuine super-Earth

To validate the planet’s existence, the team relied on a robust set of techniques:

These observations collectively confirmed that TOI-1846 b is a genuine super-Earth, orbiting a relatively small and cool red dwarf star.

TOI-1846 b faces atmospheric study challenges due to low TSM score

Researchers assessed the planet’s Transmission Spectroscopy Metric (TSM) — a measure of how suitable a planet is for atmospheric study. TOI-1846 b scored a TSM of 47, which falls below the benchmark value of 90 typically used for sub-Neptune-sized planets. This suggests that its atmosphere may be challenging to analyze with current instruments.However, astronomers still consider TOI-1846 b a compelling candidate for future study, especially using radial velocity (RV) methods with high-precision instruments like MAROON-X. These observations could help refine its mass and reveal its internal structure and water content.

TOI-1846 b vs HD 20794 d: How super-Earths differ in habitability and structure

TOI-1846 b joins a growing catalog of recently discovered super-Earth exoplanets. For instance, earlier in 2025, astronomers identified HD 20794 d, a planet located just 20 light-years away, with a mass nearly six times that of Earth. Unlike TOI-1846 b, HD 20794 d lies within its star’s habitable zone, although its elliptical orbit may complicate the possibility of stable surface water.While TOI-1846 b is too hot to support life, it remains a valuable case study for astronomers seeking to understand planetary composition, water retention, and the atmospheric evolution of rocky worlds.

What TOI-1846 b could reveal about water-rich exoplanets

Though not habitable, TOI-1846 b’s possible water-rich interior, proximity to Earth, and detailed observational data make it a key object of interest. As telescope technology improves, particularly with next-gen observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and upcoming ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs), TOI-1846 b could play a role in shaping future models of planetary formation and composition.

About the star orbiting around TOI-1846

The star around which TOI-1846 b orbits is a red dwarf, with just 42% the mass of our Sun and approximately 0.4 solar radii. It is estimated to be around 7.2 billion years old, making it older than the Sun. Its relatively cool effective temperature of 3,568 K is characteristic of low-mass stars, which are known to have long lifespans and stable radiation output — ideal for exoplanet detection missions.Also Read | Is your brain 15 seconds behind? Study reveals you’re seeing the past, not the present

An international research team led by the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) has discovered two new planets performing a cosmic tango – orbiting their star in perfect rhythm.

The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, reveal the two giant planets appear to be “dancing” around KOI-134, an F-type star 3,500 light-years from Earth.

The remarkable discovery is the first planetary system of its kind ever found.

The planets – dubbed KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c – are locked into a 2:1 orbital resonance, meaning the inner planet, KOI-134 c, completes two full orbits for every single orbit of the outer planet.

What makes the system even more intriguing is that, unlike the planets in our Solar System, the giants don’t share the same orbital plane – they are tilted about 15 degrees relative to each other.

Emma Nabbie, a UniSQ PhD student and lead author of the new research, said the discovery challenges long-held theories on planet formation.

“The two planets are linked in a rhythmic orbit – drifting apart, then slowly coming back together, like dancers weaving around each other on a cosmic stage,” Ms Nabbie said.

“While their orbital planes tilt back and forth over time, the gravitational pull from KOI-134 c causes KOI-134 b’s orbital period to shift by up to a day – speeding up and slowing down as the faster-orbiting KOI-134 c overtakes it from the inside.

“This is the first time a system with such strong gravitational interactions and misaligned orbits has been observed – presenting a major puzzle for planet formation theories, as none currently explain how a system like this could form.”

Using four years of data from the Kepler Space Telescope, the researchers discovered KOI-134 b to be a giant roughly the size of Jupiter and KOI-134 c to be slightly smaller than Saturn.

KOI-134 c is considered an ‘invisible planet’ because it doesn’t pass in front of its host star, which makes it difficult for scientists to spot its presence using traditional detection methods.

“The only way we could determine its mass was through its gravitational effect on KOI-134 b,” Ms Nabbie said.

“KOI-134 b’s average orbital period is about 67 days – but it can vary between 66 and 68 days due to the gravitational influence of KOI-134 c.

“That’s a remarkably large effect for a planet so close to its star. The variation was so extreme that it was initially denied to be a planet by the Kepler team.

“If we scaled this to Earth’s orbit, it would be like our year fluctuating between 360 and 370 days.”

As far as the researchers could tell, KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c are the only two planets orbiting KOI-134, which was first observed by NASA’s Kepler mission in 2009.

The study, ‘A high mutual inclination system around KOI-134 revealed by transit timing variations’, was co-authored by Emma Nabbie, Professor Robert Wittenmyer, Dr Chelsea Huang, Associate Professor George Zhou and Alexander Venner from UniSQ and researchers from Lund University, University of Geneva, University of La Laguna, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harvard and Smithsonian, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California and Tsinghua University.

This week, Venus will pass through the so-called Golden Gate of the Ecliptic. Although the name has risen to prominence with science popularisers in recent decades, its exact origin is unknown.

It references two star clusters in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. The Hydes and the Pleiades lie on either side of the ecliptic, which is the plane of the solar system. As such, the sun, the moon and the planets all follow this line in their passage through the sky. The constellations the ecliptic passes through are known as the zodiacal constellations, referred to in popular culture as the signs of the zodiac.

The chart shows the view looking east-north-east from London at 3.30am BST in the pre-dawn twilight of 8 July 2025. On this day, Venus will be approaching the “gate”. On subsequent mornings, the brilliant planet will move across the invisible line between the two clusters and on 12 and 13 July, it will clip the top of the Hyades star cluster, appearing 3 degrees away from the star Aldebaran.

Venus will be a brilliant white beacon in the morning sky, contrasting with the blood-red light from Aldebaran, which represents the eye of the bull.

The conjunction will also be easily visible from the southern hemisphere.

A top a mountain in Chile, where the days are dry and nights are clear, a team of scientists and engineers is preparing for one of the most important astronomical missions in recent times. Among them is Kshitija Kelkar, whose life has taken an interesting turn.Twenty years ago in Pune, the city she’s originally from, Kelkar sent a photo of a lunar eclipse she had taken with a digital camera to Sky and Telescope , a popular astronomy magazine. The publication accepted the photo and released it on its website under ‘Photo of the Week’.

Inspired, Kelkar would turn astronomy into a career, and after degrees from Fergusson College, Pune University, University of Nottingham and doctoral work on how galaxies transform in their clusters, she arrived in Chile on a grant to use telescopes for her research.Today, years after that photo she took on a tiny camera, she’s an observing specialist at the Vera C Rubin Observatory, looking at the sky through the largest digital camera ever assembled.On June 23, that camera released a set of photos that stunned astronomers. Caught in unprecedented detail were galaxy clusters, distant stars and nebulae. In one photo, the camera — the size of a car with a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels — snapped a nebula around 4,000 light years away.The Rubin observatory could even save Earth. In May, within just 10 hours, it found 2,104 previously undetected asteroids. Since its telescope takes images in quick succession, it’s able to catch moving objects from the crowd of stars in the background that tend to stay in place. If even one space rock is headed our way, chances are first alerts would come from Rubin.Humanity does have other powerful telescopes. There’s James Webb, for instance, 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth with its own very dark sky. But it’s mainly for zooming into specific targets. There’s James Webb’s predecessor, Hubble, currently in orbit over 500km above Earth. In 1995, it took Hubble nearly a week of long exposure to generate the now-famous Hubble Deep Field image, which showed about 3,000 very distant galaxies.The Rubin Observatory, during its first test run in April, generated an image that revealed 10 million galaxies, in a matter of hours.Part of the reason why it could do that is its very mission. Unlike James Webb and Hubble, which take in small parts of the sky, Rubin is a survey telescope, which means it shows the entire big picture, not specific objects. An image it takes covers a swathe of sky equivalent to 40 full moons — Webb’s cameras show a size lesser than a full moon. A single photo from Rubin is so large, one would need 400 ultra-HD TV screens to see it in its full glory.

Large is ideal, given Rubin’s purpose. Its primary optical instrument, named Simonyi Survey Telescope, is set to embark on a 10-year project called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), to map the visible sky in extraordinary detail. The telescope is more than 300 tonnes of steel and glass, which is regularly cleaned using CO 2 . Over the next decade, this telescope and the giant LSST camera will take photos of the southern hemisphere sky, every 3-4 nights, to create the largest time-lapse film of the Universe ever made.Why time-lapse? Imagine you’re on the terrace of your building with a camera pointed at your neighbourhood. Time-lapse would reveal the windows that opened, the lights that came on, the cars and curtains that moved and the doors that opened.Rubin observatory will do that to the Universe, find new objects and previously unknown interactions between them. “We’re going to be continuously taking 30-second images all night in different filters,” said Kelkar. “And since we’ll be observing the night sky every 30 seconds, in two back-to-back images of 15 seconds each, we’ll catch any object that has changed its position or brightness.”These objects may be stars, asteroids, unnamed comets and even potential sources of gravitational waves. This is where Kelkar said it would be unfair to compare Earth’s telescopes — they’re meant to complement each other, not compete.Scientists, amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts the world over can sink their teeth into this data. “People once thought the Earth was at the centre of the system. But then someone came along and said ‘no, it’s the Sun’. Similarly, we may find something absolutely mind-boggling, even evidence of life elsewhere,” Arvind Paranjpye, director of Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai, said.Kelkar has been at Rubin for over a year, living in the town of La Serena — a twohour drive away. Her commute to work is through scenic valleys and along the ‘El Camino de las Estrellas’, or the ‘Route to the Stars’, because of the number of astronomical observatories along the way.The route also needs light discipline, which means those driving there after dark cannot really use full-beam headlights. “We usually have our hazard lights up,” said Kelkar. At the observatory, work begins shortly before sunset. After a check of all systems, by Kelkar and the rest of the observing specialists, they open Rubin’s massive dome for night operations.The observatory’s placement atop the Cerro Pachón mountain puts it well above the localised turbulent layer where warm air mixes with cooler air from above, offering a clear view of the stars.Right now, trials are on as crews perform final checks before Rubin, 20 years in the making with $800 million in construction costs, formally begins its survey later in 2025.The Legacy Survey of Space and Time will be of unprecedented scale.Remember that image Rubin released of 10 million galaxies? Well, they make up just 0.05% of nearly 20 billion galaxies the observatory will have imaged when LSST ends in a decade. Rubin may see millions of distant stars ending in supernovae and into new reaches of our own Milky Way galaxy.Some 10 million alerts to scientists are expected from the observatory every night — whenever a change is detected in the series of photos it takes. Software will automatically compare new images with the stack of older ones. If an object has moved in those photos, flashed, exploded or streaked past, the software will detect the changes and dispatch an alert, all within minutes.There’s no other telescope that can do these things — detect real-time changes in the immediate sky and flashes of light from distant objects, and at such scale. In just one year, Rubin observatory will have detected more asteroids than all other telescopes combined.There’s more. The Simonyi Survey Telescope, set up on a special mount, is also fast. It can quickly swivel from one wide area of sky to another — within five seconds.Nothing will miss this allseeing eye. Kelkar said word has already been sent out to experts worldwide to investigate the 2,104 newly detected asteroids. “The telescope will be a game-changer,” she added, “because we’re giving a common dataset for all kinds of science at once. We don’t need specialised observations. It’s one data for all.”Kelkar was in the control room at La Serena when the first images landed.“Twenty years of people’s professional lives had come down to that moment. We’re about to make a 10-year movie of the night sky, with the fastest telescope and the biggest camera ever made. It’s going to be fantastic,” she said.LAST WEEK ’ S QUICK QUIZQuestion on June 30: Challenging the belief that oxygen is produced only through photosynthesis, scientists have found polymetallic nodules deep in the ocean producing oxygen. What’s this oxygen called? Answer: It’s called ‘dark’ oxygenEarth’s Largest Camera Will Sweep The Sky Like Never Before

For generations, humans have gazed at the stars and wondered about the ultimate fate of the Universe. Will it expand forever into the cold emptiness, or meet a more dramatic end?

A new study published by physicists from Cornell University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other institutions suggests we may finally have an answer, and it’s surprisingly specific.

Using data from a number of astronomical surveys including the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, the researchers have developed a model that predicts our Universe will end in a “Big Crunch” in approximately 33.3 billion years.

Related: The End of The Universe Could Come ‘Much Sooner’ Than We Thought

Since the Universe is currently 13.8 billion years old, this gives us roughly 20 billion years before the curtain falls!

This prediction challenges the long held assumption that the Universe will expand forever. Instead, it suggests that after reaching maximum expansion in about 7 billion years, the Universe will begin contracting until everything collapses back into a single point.

The key lies in understanding dark energy, the mysterious force that makes up about 70 percent of the Universe and drives its expansion. It’s long been assumed that dark energy behaves like a cosmological constant, maintaining steady pressure that pushes space apart indefinitely.

However, recent observations suggest dark energy might actually be dynamic. The researchers propose a model involving an ultra light particle called an axion, combined with what’s known as a negative cosmological constant.

Think of it like a great big rubber band. Initially, the Universe expands as this “rubber band” stretches. But eventually, the elastic force becomes stronger than the expansion, causing everything to snap back together.

According to the new model, the Universe continues expanding but at a gradually slowing rate until reaching maximum size, about 69 percent larger than today, in roughly 7 billion years. Then gradual contraction begins as gravitational forces and the negative cosmological constant take over, leading to rapid collapse in the final moments.

It’s important to note that this prediction comes with significant uncertainty. The researchers acknowledge their model has large margins of error due to limited observational data. The negative cosmological constant that drives their prediction remains highly speculative, and alternative scenarios including eternal expansion are still possible.

What makes this research particularly exciting isn’t just the prediction, but that we may soon be able to test it. Several major astronomical projects launching in the coming years will provide much more precise measurements of dark energy’s behaviour, potentially confirming, refining, or ruling out the Big Crunch scenario entirely, once and for all.

Even if confirmed, a 20 billion year countdown hardly constitutes an immediate crisis. For perspective, complex life on Earth has existed for only about 600 million years. Twenty billion years represents a timespan so vast that the Sun will have died and our galaxy will have collided with Andromeda long before any cosmic collapse begins.

Nevertheless, this research represents a remarkable achievement in our understanding of the cosmos. For the first time, scientists have developed a specific, testable prediction about the ultimate fate of everything that exists, giving us a concrete timeline for the most dramatic event possible; the end of the Universe itself!

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.