Exploring our solar system to understand its origins and evolution.
At NASA, uncovering the mysteries of our solar system’s origins and evolution – including the search for signs of habitability on other words – drives our planetary science missions.
Through robotic exploration of other planets and small bodies, our instruments and observations are able to peel back the layers of history to discover the foundations of our solar system and understand the processes of evolution that led us to the current formation.
This knowledge also informs our observations of exoplanets and distant galaxies in NASA’s astrophysics studies. And, observing the movement of small bodies such as asteroids is crucial to enabling our planetary defense against potential impacts (note: none is currently of concern).
The direction of NASA planetary science comes primarily from the scientific community in large reports produced very 10 years by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). These decadal surveys look at key science questions and how data from NASA missions past, current, and future can help answer them. The current decadal survey is “Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade, 2023-2032.”
Additional mission guidance is provided by executive branch priorities and congressional appropriations.
Europa Clipper
NASA’s first mission to conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter’s moon Europa, it will search for signs of habitability in the vast, salty ocean that lies beneath Europa’s icy crust. (Launched October 2024)
Psyche
The Psyche spacecraft is traveling to the main asteroid belt to study a unique, metal-rich asteroid of the same name, which may be the partial core of a planetesimal. (Launched October 2023)
Lucy
On its way to the Trojan asteroids that orbit the Sun with Jupiter, Lucy already has made extraordinary asteroid encounters in the main asteroid belt with Dinkinesh and Donaldjohanson. (Launched October 2021)
Perseverance Rover
Perseverance studies the geology of Mars and seeks signs of microbial life, while it collects samples of rock and surface material in and around Jezero Crater. Its companion helicopter Ingenuity was the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet. (Launched July 2020)
While knowledge of the female dominance spectrum among certain primate species dates back to the 1960s, research precisely quantifying the degree of one gender’s dominance over the other was lacking. A team of scientists collected data from 253 populations representing 121 primate species in order to study confrontations between males and females. It also analysed the contexts in which one or the other tend to dominate.
Scientists then tested five evolutionary hypotheses to better understand these power relations. Females tend to dominate in species [3] where they have strong control over their reproduction. Their dominance is also more frequent in societies marked by strong competition among females, or when gender confrontation involves fewer risks for smaller members. Conversely, male dominance is especially present in species [4] where they have clear physical superiority over females.
These results show that there is no single model for explaining power relations in primate societies, thereby offering new avenues for grasping the evolution of gender roles in early human societies.
1 – In lemurs, females often dominate. In baboons and chimpanzees, males occupy the top of the hierarchy. In other species such as bonobos and many South American monkeys, the situation is more balanced, with females winning, on average, 40 to 80% of intersexual conflicts, depending on the population.
2 – Working at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences of Montpellier (CNRS/IRD/University of Montpellier).
3 – This refers to monogamous, arboreal species in which males and females are of similar size.
4 – This refers to polygynous, terrestrial species and/or those living in groups.
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A new study finds that galaxy clusters — cosmic cities packed with thousands of galaxies — trace invisible highways of dark matter stretching up to a billion light years across the universe. Even more remarkable, the clusters point the way to their neighbors.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., July 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a groundbreaking study of 1.58 million galaxy clusters, an international team of astronomers led by Dr. Michael West of Lowell Observatory mapped how the universe’s largest structures are arranged. They found that most clusters are elongated, like grains of rice. But unlike rice scattered at random, these clusters tend to align with one another, their elongated shapes pointing toward their neighbors like arrows tracing hidden highways across the cosmos. The team’s findings were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The glowing lights of galaxies and galaxy clusters illuminate invisible dark matter highways in this region of the universe, viewed in the direction of the constellations Perseus and Pisces. Each dot is an entire galaxy, part of a colossal structure stretching across millions of light-years. Credit: Michael West.
“It’s like discovering that New York, Madrid, Rome, and Beijing were all built facing the same direction, perfectly aligned despite being thousands of miles apart,” said lead author Dr. Michael J. West of Lowell Observatory.
Astronomers have seen neighboring galaxy clusters align before, but never across such vast distances. This new study shows that clusters, like cities, are shaped by their surroundings. The biggest clusters develop where multiple dark matter highways intersect. Dark matter — the mysterious, invisible substance that makes up most of the universe’s mass — appears to determine cluster shapes and locations.
By examining the most distant clusters, the astronomers peered billions of years into the past and found that neighboring clusters were already aligned when the universe was still young — less than half its current age.
“This gives us a rare glimpse into how the universe grew up,” said co-author Dr. Maret Einasto of Tartu Observatory in Estonia. “It shows that the foundation of the universe’s largest structures was laid early, and galaxies have been following those paths ever since.”
To test their findings, the team turned to advanced computer simulations of the universe’s evolution. These simulations helped the scientists explore whether cluster alignments like those observed emerge naturally from known physics. They used the Last Journey simulation, developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory. This simulation tracks the motion of over a trillion particles as gravity shapes a virtual universe. The simulation revealed the same alignment patterns, supporting the idea that galaxy clusters form as matter flows along the universe’s dark matter highways.
“This is a cosmic traffic report,” said co-author Dr. Roberto De Propris of the Botswana International University of Science & Technology. “The cluster alignments show us which way galaxies have been flowing for billions of years.”
Other members of the team include Z.L. Wen and J.L. Han of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, whose comprehensive catalog of galaxy clusters made this research possible.
The full published paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ade66d
About Lowell Observatory Lowell Observatory is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) research institution, founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell atop Mars Hill in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Observatory has been the site of many important discoveries, including the first detection of large recessional velocities (redshift) of galaxies by Vesto Slipher in 1912-1914 (a result that led ultimately to the realization that the universe is expanding), and the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.
Today, the Observatory’s 14 tenured astronomers use ground-based telescopes around the world, telescopes in space, and NASA planetary spacecraft to conduct research in diverse areas of astronomy and planetary science. Lowell Observatory currently operates multiple research instruments at its Anderson Mesa station, east of Flagstaff, and the 4.3-meter Lowell Discovery Telescope near Happy Jack, Arizona. Prior to the pandemic, the observatory also welcomed more than 100,000 guests per year to its Mars Hill campus in Flagstaff, Arizona, for a variety of educational experiences, including historical tours, science presentations, and telescope viewing.
The new pterosaur has been named Eotephradactylus mcintireae, meaning ‘ash-winged dawn goddess’
Scientists have discovered a new species of pterosaur – a flying reptile that soared above the dinosaurs more than 200 million years ago.
The jawbone of the ancient reptile was unearthed in Arizona back in 2011, but modern scanning techniques have now revealed details showing that it belongs to a species new to science.
The research team, led by scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, has named the creature Eotephradactylus mcintireae, meaning “ash-winged dawn goddess”.
It is a reference to the volcanic ash that helped preserve its bones in an ancient riverbed.
Suzanne McIntire
The jawbone of the seagull-sized pterosaur was preserved in 209 million year-old rock
Details of the discovery are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
At about 209 million years old, this is now believed to be the earliest pterosaur to be found in North America.
“The bones of Triassic pterosaurs are small, thin, and often hollow, so they get destroyed before they get fossilised,” explained Dr Kligman.
The site of this discovery is a fossil bed in a desert landscape of ancient rock in the Petrified Forest National Park.
More than 200 million years ago, this place was a riverbed, and layers of sediment gradually trapped and preserved bones, scales and other evidence of life at the time.
The river ran through the central region of what was the supercontinent of Pangaea, which was formed from all of Earth’s landmasses.
The pterosaur jaw is just one part of a collection of fossils found at the same site, including bones, teeth, fish scales and even fossilised poo (also known as coprolites).
Dr Kligman said: “Our ability to recognise pterosaur bones in [these ancient] river deposits suggests there may be other similar deposits from Triassic rocks around the world that may also preserve pterosaur bones.”
Ben Kligman
The ancient bone bed is in the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Studying the pterosaur’s teeth also provided clues about what the seagull-sized winged reptile would have eaten.
“They have an unusually high degree of wear at their tips,” explained Dr Kligman. suggesting that this pterosaur was feeding on something with hard body parts.”
The most likely prey, he told BBC News, were primitive fish that would have been covered in an armour of boney scales.
Scientists say the site of the discovery has preserved a “snapshot” of an ecosystem where groups of animals that are now extinct, including giant amphibians and ancient armoured crocodile relatives, lived alongside animals that we could recognise today, including frogs and turtles.
This fossil bed, Dr Kligman said, has preserved evidence of an evolutionary “transition” 200 million years ago.
“We see groups that thrived later living alongside older animals that [didn’t] make it past the Triassic.
“Fossil beds like these enable us to establish that all of these animals actually lived together.”
Binned Kepler photometry (blue dots) of the KOI population which both exists above the period-radius valley and below the H2 atmospheric evaporation limit shown in Figure 4. Overlaid is a clear H2 atmosphere (µ = 2 g/mol) refraction model (solid red line). Despite these exoplanets being the only ones in the APRV population capable of holding H/He atmospheres, any possible refraction effects are severely dampened when compared to the simulated effect for an optically thin H/He atmosphere. — astro-ph.EP
We present an analysis on the detection viability of refraction effects in Kepler’s exoplanet atmospheres using binning techniques for their light curves in order to compare against simulated refraction effects.
We split the Kepler exoplanets into sub-populations according to orbital period and planetary radius, then search for out-of-transit changes in the relative flux associated with atmospheric refraction of starlight. The presence of refraction effects – or lack thereof – may be used to measure and set limits on the bulk properties of an atmosphere, including mean molecular weight or the presence of hazes.
In this work, we use the presence of refraction effects to test whether exoplanets above the period-radius valley have H/He atmospheres, which high levels of stellar radiation could evaporate away, in turn leaving rocky cores below the valley.
We find strong observational evidence of refraction effects for exoplanets above the period-radius valley based on Kepler photometry, however those related to optically thin H/He atmospheres are not common in the observed planetary population.
This result may be attributed to signal dampening caused by clouds and hazes, consistent with the optically thick and intrinsically hotter atmospheres of Kepler exoplanets caused by relatively close host star proximity.
Dereck-Alexandre Lizotte, Jason Rowe, James Sikora, Michael R. B. Matesic
Comments: 13 pages, 13 figures, to be submitted in AJ Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) Cite as: arXiv:2507.02126 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2507.02126v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.02126 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Dereck-Alexandre Lizotte [v1] Wed, 2 Jul 2025 20:20:24 UTC (384 KB) https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02126
Astrobiology
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
Scientists have identified a new type of protein in bacteria that could change our understanding of how these organisms interact with their environments.
A new study, published in Nature Communications, focuses on a protein called PopA, found in the bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. The protein forms a unique fivefold structure, unlike the usual single or three-part structures seen in similar proteins.
Supported by the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, ERC, MRC, and EPSRC an international research team, led by University of Birmingham scientists, used advanced imaging techniques to reveal that PopA has a bowl-like shape that can trap parts of the bacterial membrane inside it.
When PopA – an outer membrane protein (OMP) – is introduced into E. coli bacteria, it causes damage to their membranes. This suggests that PopA might play a role in how Bdellovibrio attacks and consumes other bacteria, whilst its ability to trap lipids (fats) suggests a new way bacteria might interact with their surroundings.
Structural analysis and AI-driven searches showed that PopA homologues – found across diverse bacterial species – form tetramers, hexamers, and even nonamers, all sharing the signature lipid‑trapping features. This suggests a widespread, previously unrecognised ‘superfamily’ of proteins.
Lead author Professor Andrew Lovering, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our discovery is significant because it challenges what scientists thought they knew about bacterial proteins. The unique structure and function of PopA suggest that bacteria have more complex ways of interacting with their environments than previously understood.
“This could open new possibilities for understanding how bacteria function and interact with their environments – leading to new ways to target harmful bacteria with important implications for medicine and biotechnology.”
The study also identified another new family of proteins that form ring-like structures, further expanding our knowledge of bacterial proteins and suggesting that the mechanism to combine into rings might be more common than previously thought.
Using a combination of X‑ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and molecular dynamics, the team demonstrated that PopA, previously known as Bd0427, forms a central lipid-trapping cavity which is unusual given that the textbook model of membrane protein formation is centred on excluding lipids.
OMPs perform a wide range of functions including signalling, host cell adhesion, catalysis of crucial reactions, and transport of solutes/nutrients into and out of organelles within the human body. Understanding the natural variability of OMPs may have benefits ranging from antibacterial development to synthetic biology.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
Over the past two decades, more than one-fifth of the world’s oceans, an area exceeding 75 million square kilometers, have undergone a phenomenon known as ocean darkening, according to groundbreaking new research.
Ocean darkening occurs when changes in water clarity reduce the depth of photic zones, the sunlit layers of the ocean that support 90% of marine life. These zones are crucial for ecological interactions driven by sunlight and moonlight, and any disruption could have far-reaching consequences.
The study, published in Global Change Biology, analyzed satellite data and numerical models to track annual shifts in the depth of the photic zone worldwide. Between 2003 and 2022, researchers found that 21% of the ocean had experienced significant darkening.
Some regions suffered particularly dramatic losses in light penetration:
Over 9% of the ocean, equivalent to the size of Africa, saw photic zones shrink by more than 50 meters.
In 2.6% of the ocean, light penetration dropped by over 100 meters.
At the same time, the researchers observed that around 10% of the ocean had become lighter, illustrating complex shifts in marine ecosystems.
The team, led by scientists from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, has been studying artificial light at night (ALAN) for over a decade. However, they say ocean darkening is likely due to different factors.
Near coastlines, darkening appears to be linked to agricultural runoff, increased rainfall, and sediment loading. In open ocean regions, shifts in algal bloom patterns and rising sea surface temperatures have reduced light penetration, affecting the ecosystem.
The changes are especially pronounced in climate-sensitive regions, such as the Arctic, Antarctic, and the Gulf Stream. Coastal areas, including enclosed seas such as the Baltic, have also experienced widespread darkening due to excess nutrients fueling the growth of plankton.
The study found varying trends in UK waters:
The darkening was observed in parts of the North Sea, Celtic Sea, and the eastern coasts of England and Scotland.
In contrast, much of the English Channel and waters near Scotland’s northern isles became lighter.
Although the full ecological impact remains uncertain, researchers warn that ocean darkening could disrupt marine food chains, affect biodiversity, and reduce the ocean’s ability to support key ecosystem services.
As climate change accelerates, understanding these shifts will be crucial for protecting ocean health.
Journal Reference
Davies, T. W., & Smyth, T. (2025). Darkening of the Global Ocean. Global Change Biology, 31(5), e70227. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.70227
The emission spectrum of WASP-19b in terms of brightness temperatures (grey), derived from the observed emission spectrum shown in Figure 1 (from Eureka! reduction). The best-fit free-chemistry model from our retrieval analysis is shown, along with its residuals, as well as the best-fit retrieved models excluding each detected species. These models were used to statistically assess the significance of each detection. Key spectral features from each detected molecular species are highlighted for reference. — astro-ph.EP
Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) offer exceptional opportunities for detailed atmospheric characterization via emission spectroscopy.
Here we present a comprehensive analysis of the dayside atmosphere of WASP-19b—one of the shortest-period UHJs—using archival JWST NIRSpec/PRISM observations spanning 0.6-5.3 μm. We report robust detections of H2O (16.44 σ), CO (5.47 σ), and CO2 (10.72 σ), along with marginal detections of CH4 (3.76 σ) and C2H2 (2.45 σ).
The retrieved composition reveals a highly carbon-rich atmosphere with a tightly constrained super-solar C/O ratio of 0.94±0.03. Elevated abundances of carbon-bearing species provide strong evidence (11.69 σ) for disequilibrium chemistry.
We also detect condensate clouds, likely Al2O3(c), at high significance (17.28 σ), and constrain the atmospheric metallicity to 1.7+1.2−0.7 × solar. These results establish a precise benchmark for modeling dayside conditions in extreme irradiated atmospheres and demonstrate JWST’s transformative capabilities for exoplanet science.
Suman Saha, James S. Jenkins
Comments: 32 pages, including 11 figures and 3 tables. Under review—comments are warmly welcomed!
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) Cite as: arXiv:2507.02797 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2507.02797v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.02797 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Suman Saha [v1] Thu, 3 Jul 2025 16:58:55 UTC (17,043 KB) https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02797
Astrobiology
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
Scientists at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have discovered that certain retinal cells can rewire themselves when vision begins to deteriorate in retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease that leads to progressive blindness. In a study using mouse models, researchers found that rod bipolar cells, neurons that normally receive signals from rods that provide night vision, can form new functional connections with cones that provide daytime vision when their usual partners stop working. The study appears in Current Biology.
Why it matters
Retinitis pigmentosa affects millions of people worldwide and is a leading cause of inherited blindness. While the disease often progresses slowly, with some patients maintaining a surprising amount of usable vision into middle age, little is known about how retinal circuits adapt to cell loss. Understanding these natural adaptation mechanisms could reveal new targets for treatments aimed at preserving vision.
What the study did
Researchers used rhodopsin knockout mice that model early retinitis pigmentosa, where rod cells cannot respond to light and degeneration proceeds slowly. They made electrical recordings from individual rod bipolar cells, neurons that normally connect to rods, to see how these cells behaved when their usual input was lost. The team also used additional mouse models lacking different components of rod signaling to determine what triggers the rewiring process. They supported their single-cell findings with whole-retina electrical measurements.
What they found
Rod bipolar cells in mice lacking functional rods showed large-amplitude responses driven by cone cells instead of their normal rod inputs. These rewired responses were strong and had the expected electrical characteristics of cone-driven signals. The rewiring occurred specifically in mice with rod degeneration, but not in other mouse models that lacked rod light responses without actual cell death. This suggests that the cellular rewiring is triggered by the degeneration process itself, rather than simply the absence of light responses or broken synapses.
The findings complement the research team’s previous 2023 work showing that individual cone cells can remain functional even after severe structural changes in later disease stages. Together, these studies reveal that retinal circuits maintain function through different adaptation mechanisms at various stages of disease progression. The research shows that retinal adaptation occurs through different mechanisms at various disease stages, which could help scientists identify new targets for preserving vision in patients with inherited retinal diseases.
From the experts
“Our findings show that the retina adapts to the loss of rods in ways that attempt to preserve daytime light sensitivity in the retina,” said senior author A.P. Sampath, Ph.D. of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “When the usual connections between rod bipolar cells and rods are lost, these cells can rewire themselves to receive signals from cones instead. The signal for this plasticity appears to be degeneration itself, perhaps through the role of glial support cells or factors released by dying cells.”
What’s next
One of the open questions is whether this rewiring represents a general mechanism used by the retina when rods die. The group is currently exploring this possibility with other mutant mice that carry mutations to rhodopsin and other rod proteins that are known to cause retinitis pigmentosa in humans.
Source:
University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences
Journal reference:
Bonezzi, P. J., et al. (2025). Photoreceptor degeneration induces homeostatic rewiring of rod bipolar cells. Current Biology. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.057.
• Ferguson highlights the move toward replacing traditional acids like trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and difluoroacetic acid (DFA) with methanesulfonic acid (MSA) in peptide analysis. This change reduces environmental impact due to lower toxicity and better biodegradability. However, it comes with trade-offs, including potential impacts on chromatographic performance and sensitivity, requiring careful method optimization.
• A key strategy for sustainability is reducing mobile phase volumes, which directly reduces solvent waste and resource consumption. This is especially relevant for high-throughput labs. However, Ferguson notes practical limitations, such as ensuring method robustness and reproducibility at lower flow rates, which can affect data quality if not well-controlled.
• Ferguson emphasizes the environmental benefits of on/off LC–MS mechanisms compared to traditional continuous-flow systems. On/off systems reduce solvent and energy usage when not actively analyzing samples. Nonetheless, they require method redesign and equipment adaptation, especially in older systems not originally built for intermittent use.
As the pharmaceutical industry moves toward more sustainable and responsible practices, the spotlight is turning to analytical techniques—and how they must evolve to meet both scientific and environmental demands. In this special HPLC 2025 interview with LCGC International, we sit down with Paul Ferguson, a leading voice in sustainability in the pharmaceutical sector, to explore the intersection of green chemistry and emerging therapeutics.
Ferguson shares insights on how method design is adapting to support sustainability in the development of new modality therapeutics. We discuss the practicalities and trade-offs of greener alternatives—such as replacing trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) with methanesulfonic acid.
From mobile phase volume reduction to the environmental implications of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) flow strategies, this discussion offers a forward-looking perspective on what it means to build analytical methods that are not only effective but also sustainable.
Ferguson addressed the following questions:
• As sustainability becomes a key consideration in pharmaceutical development, how is chromatographic method design evolving to support greener practices, particularly for new modality therapeutics such as peptides and oligonucleotides?
• What are the primary sustainability benefits and trade-offs of using MSA (methanesulfonic acid) as a replacement for TFA/DFA in peptide analysis?
• How can reducing mobile phase volumes serve as a practical strategy for reducing the environmental impact of chromatographic methods, and what limitations might be encountered?
• What impact does the on/off mechanism have on sustainability, particularly in non-optimized LC–MS systems, and how does it compare to traditional continuous-flow approaches?
• Do you have general advice on how separation science can become more sustainable?
Paul Ferguson was appointed professor by special appointment at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, in March 2025. His chair, “Separation of Biomacromolecules, with an Emphasis on Sustainable Analytical Science,” is part of the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) and endowed by the Bèta Plus foundation. He is also an active member of The Chromatographic Society (ChromSoc) and LCGC international’s editorial advisory board (EAB).
