Category: 7. Science

Imagine you’re watching a balloon inflate, but instead of slowing down as it gets bigger, it keeps expanding faster and faster. That’s essentially what scientists discovered about our universe in 1998 using exploding stars called supernovae. They found that some unknown force, which was subsequently named “dark energy” was pushing space itself apart at an accelerating rate. Now, after analyzing over 2,000 of these stellar explosions, researchers have found hints that dark energy might not be as constant as we thought. It may actually be changing, and possibly weakening over time.

A supernova was captured in the Pinwheel Galaxy in 2011 and named SN2011fe (Credit : Thunderf00t)

Type Ia supernovae are incredibly bright explosions that occur when a specific type of dead star, called a white dwarf, accumulates too much material and explodes. They’re so bright that they can be seen across billions of light years, and crucially, they all shine with roughly the same brightness.

This predictability of the brightness makes them perfect “standard candles” for measuring distances in space. Just like you could estimate how far away a streetlight is based on how bright it appears, astronomers can calculate how far these supernovae are from Earth. But here’s the key, by also measuring how much the light from these explosions has been stretched or redshifted by the expansion of space, it’s possible to figure out how fast the universe was expanding at different times in the past.

Since that Nobel Prize winning discovery in 1998, astronomers have spotted more than 2,000 Type Ia supernovae using different telescopes and techniques. But there was a problem, comparing data from different sources was like trying to compare measurements taken with different rulers. Each telescope and survey had its own calibrations and differences.

Schematic of the Type 1a supernova process (Credit : NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI))

To solve this, an international team called the Supernova Cosmology Project spent years creating something called “Union3”, the largest standardised dataset of supernovae ever assembled. They painstakingly analysed 2,087 supernovae from 24 different datasets, adjusting for all the differences between telescopes and surveys to put everything on the same scale. When the team analysed this massive, standardised dataset using statistical methods, they found something intriguing. The data suggests that dark energy might not have stayed constant throughout history.

“Dark energy makes up almost 70% of the universe and is what drives the expansion, so if it is getting weaker, we would expect to see expansion slow over time” – David Rubin, the study’s lead author from the University of Hawaii.

This potential change in dark energy has huge implications for the ultimate fate of our universe. Currently, researchers work with a model called Lambda CDM, where dark energy (Lambda) stays constant over time and counteracts the gravitational pull of matter (cold dark matter, or CDM). But if dark energy is actually weakening then the model could play out very differently. If dark energy wins over gravity, the universe continues expanding forever, potentially leading to a “Big Rip” where space expands so fast that even atoms get torn apart. If gravity wins, the expansion could slow down, stop, or even reverse into a “Big Crunch” where everything collapses back together. If they balance, the universe might reach a steady state.

What makes this discovery particularly exciting is that it’s not coming from just one source. A separate study called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which studies how galaxies cluster together, is seeing similar hints that dark energy might be evolving.

The researchers aren’t ready to definitively declare that dark energy is changing—the evidence, while intriguing, isn’t quite strong enough yet. Over the next year, they plan to add several hundred more supernovae to their dataset, which should provide even more precise measurements. Looking further ahead, new telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope are expected to discover tens of thousands of additional supernovae over the coming decade.

Source : Largest supernova dataset hints dark energy may be changing over time

Recreating the environment that most spacecraft experience on their missions is difficult on Earth. Many times it involves large vacuum chambers or wind tunnels that are specially designed for certain kinds of tests. But sometimes, engineers get to just do larger scale versions of the things they got to do in high school. That is the case for a recent test of ExoMars’s parachute system. A team of ESA engineers and their contractors performed a scaled up egg-drop test common in physics classes across the world. Except this one involved a stratospheric balloon the size of a football field and a helicopter.

ExoMars has a multi-stage descent system. First, the spacecraft itself will aerobrake through Mars’ atmosphere. Then it will deploy a parachute to slow down even more using just the planet’s atmosphere. A final stage will see the spacecraft deploy retrorockets to perform a soft landing on the surface of the Red Planet.

Each of those sub-systems must be tested in turn, with each requiring different test setups. Recently the mission’s engineers completed testing of the parachute that involved dropping it from the stratosphere to an isolated part of northern Sweden. To get it to the stratosphere, the entire test rig, which represented the heat shield and mock internal components to be used on ExoMars itself, was attached to a giant balloon that, when inflated to its full size, was about the size of a football field.

Video describing the full stratospheric deployment test. Credit – ESA YouTube Channel

After it made it to the stratosphere, the craft was released and immediately deployed its parachute. That high in the atmosphere, the conditions are similar to Mars’ extremely thin atmosphere, and after falling for a certain amount of time, the spacecraft would be going about the same speed it is expected to after the aerobraking stage of its descent. In other words, this test was designed under conditions expected to be found when ExoMars actually gets to Mars.

Sensors onboard the spacecraft captured as much data as possible – orientation, rotation, speed, and even a video camera were all operational on the way down. Once it did land in the northern part of Sweden, a few lunch team members got to take a ride in a helicopter to go find it – which is the dream of most future engineers doing the egg drop test in their physics class in school.

The parachute itself had sat in storage for years before being deployed in this test, so part of the reason for the test itself was to ensure the parachute didn’t degrade over time, even though it was stored in a controlled environment. Despite no publicly released records on whether or nor the test was successful, from a video describing the process and capturing some of the important moments, it certainly seems like it was. At least the parachute itself seemed to deploy and remain intact, and the test vehicle didn’t end up as a smoldering hole in the ground at the end of the test. Most of those high school engineers would count that as a success.

ESA video that describes the process of how ExoMars will get to the surface of the Red Planet. Credit – ESA YouTube Channel

ExoMars itself is planned for launch in October 2028, during one of the bi-yearly openings for Mars launches. So the engineers have about three more years to complete the construction and testing of the rest of their systems. Given the geopolitical tensions surrounding this project, the fact that it is moving foward at all is a small bureacatic miracle. But with this test chalked up as a success, the team can more on to more interesting ones – like potentially blasting the heat shield with a flamethrower or having the spacecraft itself fire its own rockets and land securely on the ground. When it comes to spaceflight, sometimes testing is the most fun part of the engineering process.

Learn More:

UT – ExoMars is Back on Track for Mars in 2028

UT – The ExoMars Rover is Ready, now it Just Needs a new Ride to Mars

UT – ExoMars is Suspended. ESA is Looking for new Solutions to Replace Russian Components

In a recent test, NASA utilised an AI payload developed by Ubotica to show that the tech can help orbiting spacecraft provide better data.

Airbus’ latest generation (Constellation Optique 3D) CO3D satellites are set to launch today (25 July) aboard the Arianespace Vega-C rocket from French Guiana. The project is a high-profile collaboration between Airbus and the French Space Agency (CNES).

A navigation system created by Dublin-based space-tech manufacturer Innalabs has been fit on the satellite. The ARIETIS-NS system provides radiation-tolerant, high-precision inertial navigation, supporting the satellites’ critical attitude control and mission stability functions.

According to the start-up, its gyroscope unit is small in size, weight and the power it needs to run, and it operates with “extremely low noise” to avoid interference with telecoms and observation systems.

Designed and built by Airbus, the four CO3D dual-use satellites will deliver a global high-resolution Digital Surface Model service to CNES. It will also, the satellites will strengthen Airbus’ solutions of optical and radar satellites. The spacecrafts are set to operate for eight years, in pairs orbiting on opposite sides of the Earth.

“Being part of this project marks a proud milestone for Innalabs and for Irish engineering in space,” said John O’Leary, the CEO of Innalabs.

“We are honoured to contribute to this cutting-edge programme that is setting new standards in satellite performance and innovation.”

Last year, the Blanchardstown start-up’s navigation unit made its way with the European Space Agency (ESA) in a planetary defence mission, called Hera, to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid system.

While earlier this May, Innalabs secured its second contract to advance Earth’s planetary defence through ESA’s Ramses mission.

Ubotica’s AI upgrades NASA satellite

In a test earlier this month, NASA utilised an artificial-intelligence payload developed by Irish space-tech firm Ubotica, to show that the tech can help orbiting spacecraft provide more targeted and valuable data, faster.

The payload runs on Ubotica’s Space:AI platform, a commercially available space-capable processor. The test was conducted on CogniSAT-6, a CubeSat designed, built and operated by Open Cosmos.

The AI-run technology enabled an Earth-observing satellite, for the first time, to look ahead along its orbital path, rapidly process and analyse imagery with onboard AI and determine where to point an instrument.

The whole process took less than 90 seconds, without any human involvement, said NASA.

The concept is called Dynamic Targeting and the collaborators want to showcase its potential to enable orbiters to improve ground imaging by avoiding clouds, as well as hunt for specific, short-lived phenomena such as wildfires, volcanic eruptions and rare storms.

A paper on Dynamic Targeting was presented by NASA and Ubotica late last year at the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation for Space, in Brisbane, Australia.

“The idea is to make the spacecraft act more like a human. Instead of just seeing data, it’s thinking about what the data shows and how to respond,” explained Steve Chien, a technical fellow in AI at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and principal investigator for the Dynamic Targeting project.

“When a human sees a picture of trees burning, they understand it may indicate a forest fire, not just a collection of red and orange pixels. “We’re trying to make the spacecraft have the ability to say, ‘That’s a fire,’ and then focus its sensors on the fire.”

Ubotica CEO, Fintan Buckley, sees this as a shift from photographing everything, to photographing what matters.

“If you can be smart about what you’re taking pictures of, then you only image the ground and skip the clouds. That way, you’re not storing, processing, and downloading all this imagery researchers really can’t use,” said Ben Smith from JPL, an associate with NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office, which funds the Dynamic Targeting work.

With the cloud-avoidance capability now proven, the next test will be hunting for storms and severe weather. While another test will be to search for thermal anomalies like wildfires and volcanic eruptions.

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Grafting is a common agricultural practice to combine desirable traits by joining the rootstock of one plant with the scion of another. Compatibility is key—without successful vascular integration, the graft fails. While grafting works well within many plant families, cross-species combinations often result in unexplained failure. One well-documented example is the graft incompatibility between tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and pepper (Capsicum spp.), two closely related species within the Solanaceae family. Past studies identified physical weakness and failed vascular reconnection, but lacked molecular explanation. The persistent presence of necrotic tissue at the graft site hinted at deeper cellular conflict. Due to these challenges, a comprehensive investigation of the biological underpinnings of graft incompatibility was needed.

Researchers from Cornell University and collaborators published a study (DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae255) on September 11, 2024, in Horticulture Research, providing unprecedented insights into why grafts between tomato and pepper fail. Using anatomical inspection and high-resolution RNA sequencing, the team found that incompatible grafts triggered strong immune responses and sustained cell death at the junction site. The work identifies a novel mechanism of incompatibility based on autoimmunity, opening new directions for understanding plant-to-plant recognition and graft success.

The team performed reciprocal grafts between tomato and four pepper cultivars and found consistent failure across all combinations. Despite initial graft survival in some pairings, anatomical examination showed no vascular reconnection. Structural tests confirmed weakened stem stability. Using trypan blue staining, researchers observed high levels of nonviable tissue at the junction up to 21 days after grafting, in contrast to self-grafts that healed progressively. RNA-seq analysis revealed that incompatible grafts expressed significantly more differentially expressed genes—especially nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs)—than self-grafts. These NLRs, known for recognizing pathogenic threats, were upregulated without any pathogen presence, indicating a self-activated immune reaction. Moreover, markers of DNA damage and cell death, including BRCA1, BARD1, and programmed cell death genes, were highly expressed. Interestingly, the study also found that incompatible grafts shared transcriptional signatures with biotic stress responses like parasitism and fungal attack, suggesting that the plant perceived the other species as a biological invader. Shared orthologs between tomato and pepper—such as ERF114—further support that common genetic elements mediate this rejection. Overall, this is the first clear demonstration of autoimmunity being the molecular cause of interspecies graft incompatibility in crops.

“Our research reveals that incompatible grafts behave much like plants under attack,” said lead author Hannah Rae Thomas. “Tomato and pepper appear to mistake each other for invaders, activating immune pathways that lead to persistent cell death at the graft site. This immune-driven incompatibility offers a compelling explanation for why these species, despite their genetic closeness, cannot be successfully grafted. It’s a reminder that plant immune systems are remarkably discerning—even with their own family members.”

These findings have profound implications for plant breeding and agriculture. By identifying genetic markers and immune pathways responsible for graft failure, breeders may be able to screen for compatible scion-rootstock combinations or even engineer compatibility. The work also opens a new frontier in understanding how plants distinguish self from non-self—a process crucial not only in grafting but also in pathogen defense and hybrid breeding. Furthermore, this study lays the groundwork for predictive models of compatibility and may guide future development of interspecies grafting strategies across the Solanaceae family and beyond.

Source: NewsWise

Chemist Emily Mevers and her team recently discovered a new set of complex structures in millipede secretions that can modulate specific neuroreceptors in ant brains.

The newly discovered structures fall into a class of naturally occurring compounds called alkaloids. The Mevers team named them the andrognathanols and the andrognathines after the producing millipede, Andrognathus corticarius, found on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus in Stadium Woods. These discoveries were recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

A new compound discovery

Mevers specializes in leveraging the chemistry of underexplored ecological niches, in this case the millipede, in the name of drug discovery.

After collecting millipedes from under leaf litter and fallen branches in Stadium Woods, Mevers and team members used a variety of analytical tools to identify the compounds contained in the millipedes’ defensive glands. They also learned that the millipedes release these compounds to ward off predators while also sharing their location with their kin.

Broader implications

Despite their pervasiveness, much about millipedes remains mysterious — including their specific habitats, numbers, diets, behaviors, and chemistry. Mevers, in collaboration with millipede expert Paul Marek in the entomology department, is working to fill in some of these gaps and see if what they uncover could be useful for future medications.

Previously, Mevers and Marek examined a millipede native to the Pacific Northwest, Ishcnocybe plicata, and discovered that related alkaloids potently and selectively interact with a single neuroreceptor called Sigma-1. The interaction suggested that this family of compounds may have useful pharmacology potential for the treatment of pain and other neurological disorders.

The Mevers group discovered that the new alkaloids are actively secreted from the Hokie millipede when it is physically disturbed. The secretions cause disorientation in ants, a presumed natural predator. A subset of these compounds possesses similar interactions with the Sigma-1 neuroreceptor.

Moving toward drug development

With the newfound complex compounds in hand, the next step is finding people to actually make them in larger quantities and evaluate their biomedical applications.

“These compounds are quite complex, so they’re going to take some time to synthesize in the lab,” said Mevers.

Once larger quantities are available, Mevers will be able to better study their properties and potential in drug development.

NASA’s new web portal reveals ground movements across North America with precision that captures tiny shifts smaller than an inch, reported NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This tool helps people monitor the Earth’s movements, whether caused by natural phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanic activity or human activities such as the extraction of underground resources.

By converting complex satellite radar signals into user-friendly visual maps, NASA has made what was once specialist knowledge available to everyday users.

The project comes from NASA’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis team working with the Alaska Satellite Facility. They’ve created a program that handles satellite information collected since 2014, with plans to include new data from another space mission launching this year.

“You can zoom in to your country, your state, your city block, and look at how the land there is moving over time,” said David Bekaert, OPERA project manager and radar scientist. “You can see that by a simple mouse click.”

Right now, you can explore data for areas such as the American Southwest, parts of Mexico’s northern region, and greater New York. The portal displays information for millions of spots on the map. When you click anywhere, you’ll see a chart showing that location’s movement history back to 2016.

Watch now: Giant snails invading New York City?

Water experts have already started using this mapping tool. Take Arizona, where tracking the gradual sinking of land helps manage precious groundwater supplies.

“It’s a great tool to say, ‘Let’s look at those areas more intensely with our own SAR processing,’” said Brian Conway, principal hydrogeologist at the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The technology works by bouncing radar signals off Earth’s surface from satellites. When these signals return, special computer programs analyze them to determine if the land is rising or sinking. What once took specialists many days to calculate now happens automatically within seconds.

NASA plans to roll out coverage beyond its current regions. According to its timeline, people across North America will gain access as the map grows to include all U.S. states, neighboring areas in Canada, and countries throughout Central America before 2026 arrives.

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NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured the moon eclipsing the sun in an event only observable from its position in space. At the height of the event on Friday, July 25, around 62% of the sun was covered by the moon. The SDO, which is solar-powered, coped with the drop in sunlight by having its batteries fully charged before the eclipse occurred.

Key Facts

Europe’s ‘fake’ Total Solar Eclipses In Space

The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission — the world’s first precision formation flying mission — last month captured the first images of an artificial total solar eclipse from space. Proba-3 is a pair of satellites that fly in formation with millimeter precision, with one blocking the sun with an occulter disk and casting a shadow on a telescope on the satellite behind it. That allows it to image the sun’s corona — the sun’s outer, hotter but more tenuous atmosphere — which is only visible during a total solar eclipse. Although SDO can also see the corona, Proba-3 can see much farther into it, revealing what’s going on close to the Sun’s photosphere. That’s important because it’s there that the solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections are produced. Proba-3 can produce a total solar eclipse lasting six hours once every 19.6-hour orbit.

Apollo 11’s Solar Eclipse In Space

Exactly 56 years ago this week, the crew of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission — the first to put astronauts on the moon — saw a total solar eclipse. On Jul. 19, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins photographed a total solar eclipse on their way to the moon. Aldrin had seen a total solar eclipse from space before, on Nov. 11, 1966, during the Gemini 12 mission with Jim Lovell. The crew of Apollo 12 — Pete Conrad, Alan Bean and Dick Gordon — also saw a total solar eclipse from space on Nov. 24, 1969.

When Is The Next Total Solar Eclipse In North America?

The next total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. will occur on Aug. 22, 2044. The path of totality will begin in Greenland, travel through Canada’s Northwest Territories (with maximum totality close to Great Bear Lake, at 2 minutes and 4 seconds) and finish with an eclipsed sunset from Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota. Another total solar eclipse will occur across the U.S. a lunar year later, on Aug 10, 2045.

Further Reading

ForbesIn Photos: First Ever ‘Fake’ Total Solar Eclipse Created In SpaceBy Jamie CarterForbesNASA Spacecraft ‘Touches Sun’ For Final Time In Defining Moment For HumankindBy Jamie CarterForbesNASA Urges Public To Leave The City As Milky Way Appears — 15 Places To GoBy Jamie Carter

A beautiful crescent moon will appear close to Mars after dark on Monday, July 28. The dancing duo will make their debut about 45 minutes after sunset and will be visible from across the world — just as several meteor showers approach their peaks.

The conjunction between the 19%-illuminated waxing crescent moon and the Red Planet will take place above due west, making it visible to most people, although a park or open field will provide a better view. The gap between the moon and Mars will be about 1 degree — roughly the width of your little finger held at arm’s length.

A new scientific study sent a quiet but serious signal through the climate science community last week: researchers have detected a shift in the Southern Ocean’s circulation patterns. While the mainstream media barely registered the news, this finding could have significant implications for global climate dynamics and the resilience of Earth’s systems. The study, powered by satellite innovations, challenges longstanding climate model predictions and offers a fresh lens into one of the most remote yet critical regions on the planet.

Why does this matter? The ocean plays a key role in regulating global climate by distributing heat and storing carbon. Any change in the way its currents move or how its waters mix can ripple out to affect weather patterns, ice melt, and greenhouse gas release. In this post, we’ll unpack what this shift means, explore the risks, look at how ocean currents shape global climate, and highlight why ecosystem resilience may be our best ally in an era of accelerating change.

The risks of shifting waters

The core finding of the study is the detection of increased salinity at the surface of the Southern Ocean. This contradicts previous expectations that melting ice would make surface waters fresher. Saltier water is denser, and this density shift allows deep, warmer water to rise toward the surface — a process known as upwelling. That upwelling can, in turn, accelerate the melting of sea ice, releasing stored heat and CO2 (both dissolved in deeper waters and locked in the continental ice) into the atmosphere, which may intensify global warming.

These changes don’t operate in isolation. The Southern Ocean plays a crucial role in absorbing excess heat and carbon from the atmosphere. A disruption in its circulation could weaken this function, creating a feedback loop where warming leads to more warming. If these upwelling events become more frequent, they could destabilize not just regional systems but also larger-scale patterns like rainfall distribution and storm intensity across the Southern Hemisphere, and eventually, the rest of the planet.

The large-scale nature of climate

Earth’s climate is a vast, interconnected system shaped by interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, land, ice, and ecosystems. Solar radiation is distributed unevenly across the planet, warming the equator more than the poles. This temperature imbalance sets air and water in motion, creating the engine behind weather and climate. The ocean and atmosphere are tightly coupled: winds drive surface currents, while the ocean stores and redistributes heat, shaping pressure systems and wind patterns in return.

One of the most critical components of this system is the global ocean circulation, often called the Ocean Conveyor Belt<. Near the equator, warm, less dense water rises and fuels the atmosphere with moisture. At the poles, colder, denser water sinks, making space for warm water to flow in. This movement creates a planetary-scale conveyor that transports heat, nutrients, and carbon around the world. A shift in any part of this system, such as shifts in the Antarctic Ocean, could have far-reaching consequences for global climate stability.

The overturning circulation of the global ocean. Throughout the Atlantic Ocean, the circulation carries warm waters (red arrows) northward near the surface and cold deep waters (blue arrows) southward. Image credit: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Overturning_circulation_of_the_global_ocean.jpg. File is in the Public Domain.

Reading the signs

Although the detection of increased salinity and upwelling in the Southern Ocean is concerning, it doesn’t yet signal a full-scale breakdown of global circulation. Climate and ocean systems operate on seasonal, decadal, and even multidecadal cycles. The observed changes may be part of natural variability rather than a permanent shift. What matters now is monitoring how often these events occur, and whether their frequency is increasing compared to the past.

This is where ecosystem resilience becomes essential. Healthy marine ecosystems can absorb some of the shocks from climate variability, helping to stabilize key processes even as conditions shift. But their ability to do so depends on the pressures we place on them. As warming accelerates and ocean circulation patterns change, safeguarding ecosystem resilience becomes a critical line of defense. Investing in science, policy, and conservation isn’t just prudent, it’s urgent. For now, the study serves as a powerful reminder: the Earth is speaking. It’s up to us to listen and respond.

Teaser image credit: Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record. Credit NASA, Public Domain.