Category: 7. Science

Thanks to the Swiss space telescope CHEOPS, astronomers have discovered a “suicidal” planet. Named HIP 67522 b, this exoplanet triggers solar flares so powerful that they literally blow away its atmosphere, causing it to shrink.

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According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this planet could shrink from the size of Jupiter to that of Neptune over the next 100 million years. This is the first evidence of a “suicidal” planet, according to this work published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Such eruptions can also occur on our star, the Sun, when its magnetic field twists. Large quantities of radiation and charged particles are then projected into space. When these particles encounter the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, they can produce the aurora borealis.

A very young star

But scientists have now shown for the first time that a planet can trigger such eruptions. Since the 1990s, astronomers have speculated that certain planets could orbit so close to their parent star that they could disrupt its magnetic field, triggering flares.

The planet HIP 67522 b offered the perfect conditions for this: it is very close to its star. It takes just seven days to circle it.

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How a special telescope learns about new planets

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Oct 26, 2020


The Swiss-led CHEOPS space telescope observes bright stars known to host planets.

Read more: How a special telescope learns about new planets

What’s more, the star around which it orbits is very young, just 17 million years old. By comparison, our Sun, 4.5 billion years old, is some 265 times older. The younger a star is, the more energy and magnetic activity it possesses.

Although such effects were assumed in theory, current observations have surprised scientists: according to ESA, the flares observed during this research are 100 times more energetic than expected. The authors now plan to observe other similar star-planet systems to determine whether this behavior is more frequent.

This research was carried out as part of CHEOPS’ Guest Observers program. Scientists outside the Cheops team were given time to make their own observations with the telescope.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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Swiss lakes reach record high temperatures

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Jul 2, 2025


Swiss lakes hit record high temperatures due to a heatwave, impacting wildlife and water quality.

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Switzerland and EFTA sign trade deal with Mercosur

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Jul 2, 2025


Switzerland and EFTA sign a free trade deal with Mercosur, offering customs savings up to CHF160 million.

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Intelligence report finds Switzerland remains target for spies

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Jul 2, 2025


Swiss report warns of rising espionage and online radicalisation threats.

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Basel Zoo announces offspring of endangered bird species

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Jul 2, 2025


Basel Zoo is celebrating successful breeding of endangered bird species, aiding conservation.

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Study finds climate change increases earthquake risk on Mont Blanc

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Jul 2, 2025


Climate change has sharply increased earthquake risk on the Mont Blanc massif according to a new study.

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Swiss pharma firm Sandoz invests $440 million in Slovenia

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Jul 2, 2025


Sandoz is investing $440 million in Slovenia for new biosimilar centers, aiming to tap into a rapidly growing market.

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Switzerland kicks off women’s football EURO with multi-city celebration

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Jul 2, 2025


Switzerland launches the women’s football EURO with celebrations in multiple cities.

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Swiss firm BioVersys signs deal with Shionogi for antibiotics research

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Swiss firm BioVersys and Japanese firm Shionogi have joined forces on antibiotic research.

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Swiss government orders end to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Geneva

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Swiss authorities dissolve US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Geneva.

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Swiss government completely revises pandemic plan due to Covid-19

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The Swiss government has completely revised the pandemic plan based on its experience with the coronavirus.

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Around 100 million years ago, on a tidal flat near what is now Denver in the US state of Colorado, dinosaurs may have gathered to dance. According to a new study published in Cretaceous Research, new findings suggest that dozens of mysterious scrape marks preserved in stone at Colorado’s famed Dinosaur Ridge represent one of the largest known dinosaur mating display arenas – known as leks – ever discovered.

“Leks – or ‘courtship arenas’ – are areas where a number of individuals congregate to participate in courtship display behaviours to attract potential mates,” Dr Caldwell Buntin, lead author of the study, told BBC Science Focus.

Many modern birds (the descendants of dinosaurs) including knots and plovers exhibit such behaviours, Buntin said.

The idea that dinosaurs performed such rituals was first proposed by palaeontologist Dr Martin Lockley, who noted similar traces nearby. This new study significantly expands on that evidence, revealing more than 30 distinct scrape marks across multiple layers of sediment.

The traces fall into two categories: broad, shallow bowl-like marks and narrower, overlapping scrapes. Many appear to have been made by backwards kicking movements from both feet, sometimes while rotating.

Drone imagery from a 2019 US Geological Survey and follow-up surveys in 2024 helped the team map the site in detail, as walking on the site is prohibited.

“This was a one-of-a-kind find,” said Buntin, who worked with Lockley until his death in 2023.

“We were extremely excited, and it was a surreal moment looking at the drone imagery for the first time and noticing scrapes pop up all across the screen. It was definitely a ‘eureka!’ moment for me.”

The exact species responsible for the markings remains unknown, but based on nearby fossil footprints Buntin pointed to Acrocanthosaurus – a T. rex–like predator – and ostrich-like Ornithomimids as likely candidates.

He said it’s unlikely that T. rex itself engaged in similar courtship displays, as “this behaviour seems to have required complex social relationships and was probably associated with herding or travelling in groups.”

Buntin now hopes to revisit other potential lek sites across western Colorado to reassess earlier interpretations of the scrapes there.

If confirmed, these scrapes would offer one of the clearest windows yet into the reproductive lives of dinosaurs – revealing not just how they reproduced, but how they courted and competed for mates.

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About our expert

Rogers ‘Caldwell’ Buntin is a graduate teaching assistant at Old Dominion University. His research has been published in journals including Sedimentary Geology and Cretaceous Research.

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A meteorite that is the largest known piece of Mars on Earth is expected to fetch up to $4 million when it goes up for auction later this month.

Known as NWA 16788, the meteorite weighs 54 pounds (24.5 kilograms), massive compared with most Martian meteorites, which tend to be small fragments, auction house Sotheby’s said in a statement published Tuesday.

Meteorites are what’s left when a comet, asteroid or a meteoroid survives its passage through the earth’s atmosphere.

Discovered in November 2023 in the remote Agadez region of Niger, NWA 16788 is a “monumental specimen” that is around 70% larger than the next biggest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, according to Sotheby’s.

It is also incredibly rare: only around 400 Martian meteorites have ever been found on Earth.

“NWA 16788 is a discovery of extraordinary significance — the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, and the most valuable of its kind ever offered at auction,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in the statement.

“Weathered by its journey through space and time, its immense size and unmistakable red color sets it apart as a once-in-a-generation find. This remarkable meteorite provides a tangible connection to the red planet — our celestial neighbor that has long captured the human imagination,” she added.

Analysis of the meteorite’s internal composition has revealed that it was probably removed from the Martian surface and blasted into space by an asteroid impact that was so powerful it turned parts of the meteorite into glass.

A glassy crust can also be seen on its surface, formed as it hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere, according to Sotheby’s.

The meteorite will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s New York on July 16.

For some, the fact that the meteorite is being sold rather than donated to science is cause for concern.

“It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch. It belongs in a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large,” Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh, told CNN on Wednesday.

But for Julia Cartwright, a planetary scientist and Independent Research Fellow in the Institute for Space/School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Leicester, England, there is a balance to be struck.

“Ultimately, if there was no market for searching, collecting and selling meteorites, we would not have anywhere near as many in our collections — and this drives the science!” she told CNN on Wednesday, describing a “symbiotic relationship” between researchers and collectors.

“If samples weren’t being found, we would not have anywhere near as much to study, and so wouldn’t know as much as we do,” added Cartwright.

While she believes it would be great if this “really fabulous rock” were to be studied or displayed for the public to see, Cartwright underlined that a reference sample from the meteorite has been saved at the Purple Mountain Observatory in China.

While we don’t know where the meteorite will end up after the auction, Cartwright believes that “the scientific interest will remain, and the new owner may be very interested in learning from it, so we may still gather lots of science from this,” she said.

In February 2021, a Martian meteorite with the planet’s atmosphere entrapped in it went under the hammer at Christie’s auction house.

It sold for $200,000, far above its pre-auction estimate of $30,000-50,000.

Some planets take the expression “you’re your own worst enemy” to the extreme. At least, that’s what astronomers found when they recently discovered a doomed planet clinging to its parent star so tightly that it’s triggering explosive outbursts and destroying itself.

The clingy, self-destructive extrasolar planet, or “exoplanet,” in question is called HIP 67522 b. It orbits a young, 17 million-year-old star so closely that one of its years lasts just one Earth week.

One of the great unsolved problems in modern planetary science is written on the surface of Mars. 

Mars has canyons that were carved by rivers, so it was once warm enough for liquid water. How—and why—did it become it a barren desert today?

A study led by University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite puts forth a new explanation for why Mars never seems to stay balmy for long. Published July 2 in Nature, their model suggests that the periods of liquid water we see in the past were initiated by the sun brightening, and that conditions on Mars mean it trends towards desert over time—in contrast to Earth, which has stayed habitable over time.

The study builds on findings from NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission that were announced in April: the rover finally found rocks rich in carbonate minerals, which could explain where Mars’ atmosphere went. 

“For years, we’ve had this huge unanswered question for why Earth has managed to keep its habitability while Mars lost it,” said Kite, an associate professor of geophysical sciences who is a participating scientist for the Curiosity mission. “Our models suggest that periods of habitability on Mars have been the exception, rather than the rule, and that Mars generally self-regulates as a desert planet.” 

A ‘golden age’ of Mars science

Mars has almost the same makeup as Earth—it’s a rocky planet, with plenty of carbon and water, near enough to the sun to be warmed but not cooked by it—and yet today it’s a frozen desert, while Earth teems with life. For years, scientists have been searching for an answer to why you are reading this from Earth and not Mars.

The mystery deepened when we were able to see river-carved valleys and old lakebeds on the surface of Mars, showing the planet at some point did have a climate that was warm enough for liquid water.

“Fortunately, Mars preserves a trace of that environmental catastrophe in the rocks on its surface,” Kite said. “And today we’re in a golden age of Mars science, with two plutonium-powered rovers on the surface and an international fleet of spacecraft in orbit that allow us to deeply explore the planet for these traces.”

When it comes to keeping a planet balmy and mild, it isn’t enough just to start out that way—there need to be mechanisms for stability over time that can respond to changes on and around the planet.

Scientists think that Earth does this through a finely balanced system that moves carbon from sky to rock and back again. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet, but warmer temperatures also speed up reactions that lock up carbon dioxide into rock, which eventually counteracts the temperature rise. Eventually, carbon leaks back out into the atmosphere via volcanic eruptions. Over millions of years, this cycle appears to have kept Earth relatively stable and hospitable for life. 

On Mars, the researchers suggested, a similar cycle could also take place—but a self-limiting one. 

It hinges on the fact that our sun’s brightness rises very, very slowly over time—about 8 percent per billion years. As the sun brightens, the scientists hypothesize, liquid water begins running on Mars. But then this water starts causing carbon dioxide to get locked into rocks, as it does on Earth, which swings the planet back to cold and barren desert. 

“In contrast to Earth, where there are always some volcanoes erupting, Mars right now is volcanically dormant, and the average rate of volcanic outgassing on Mars is slow,” explained Kite. “So in that situation, you don’t really have a balance between carbon dioxide in and carbon dioxide out, because if you have even a little bit of liquid water, you’re going to draw down carbon dioxide through carbonate formation.” 

The group built extensive models showing how these swings could happen. They suggest that Mars experiences short periods of liquid water, followed by 100-million-year-long periods of desert. Needless to say, a 100-million-year-long gap in habitability is bad for life. 

A Martian mystery

The explanation was made possible by Curiosity’s discovery, announced earlier this year, of carbonate-rich rocks on Mars’ surface. This had been a missing piece of the puzzle for years, the scientists explained. 

To have had liquid water, Mars had to have a thicker atmosphere made up of a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide. But today there’s very little atmosphere, leaving a puzzle of where the carbon went.

“People have been looking for a tomb for the atmosphere for years,” said Kite. 

The simplest explanation would be that it was drawn down into rocks, as it is on Earth, but the first rover tests hadn’t turned up any evidence of carbonate-rich rocks.

It took Curiosity’s journey up a Martian mountain named Mt. Sharp to finally find these carbonate rocks. As it continues, further tests will show whether the carbonate is as widespread as researchers suspect. 

“It really is something you cannot know until you have a rover on the surface,” said study coauthor Benjamin Tutolo, a professor at the University of Calgary. “The chemistry and mineralogy measurements they provide really are essential in our continuing quest to understand how and why planets stay habitable, in order to search for other hospitable worlds out in the universe.” 

UChicago postdoctoral researcher Madison L. Turner was also a co-author on the study, in addition to co-authors with the University of Calgary, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center, California Institute of Technology, Brown University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Citation: “Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars.” Kite et al, Nature, July 2, 2025. 

Funding: NASA.

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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