Category: 7. Science

Astronomers have potentially captured the HD 135344B planet during its formation process, allowing for a new understanding of how planetary systems like ours come into existence

Using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, researchers have observed a young star, HD 135344B, surrounded by a disc of swirling gas and dust, with clear evidence of a planet carving out spiral arms within it.

This discovery marks the first time scientists have directly detected a planet candidate embedded inside a spiral pattern in a protoplanetary disc, the material surrounding a young star from which planets form.

A planet carving spirals

The star HD 135344B, located 440 light-years away in the constellation Lupus, is enveloped by a dense protoplanetary disc. These discs often feature rings, gaps, and spiral structures believed to be shaped by the gravitational influence of forming planets. While previous studies had observed spiral arms in this system, none had successfully identified the presence of a planet causing the pattern until now.

Using the VLT’s state-of-the-art ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph) instrument, scientists detected a compact, bright signal at the base of one of the disc’s spiral arms. This signal is believed to be the light emitted by a planet still embedded in the disc, suggesting it is actively shaping the surrounding gas and dust as it grows.

This planet candidate is estimated to be about twice the mass of Jupiter and lies at a distance from its star similar to Neptune’s orbit around the Sun.

Planet hunting

The ERIS instrument, installed on the VLT in 2022, is proving to be a game-changer for direct imaging of young planetary systems. It allows astronomers to look deeper into dusty regions around young stars and detect faint objects that older technologies may have overlooked.

In the case of HD 135344B, ERIS enabled astronomers not only to see the spiral structures in greater detail but also to identify the likely cause: a forming planet. This represents a key step forward in confirming long-standing theories about how young planets influence their birth environments.

A young system under the microscope

In a separate but relevant study, another group of astronomers used ERIS to investigate a young star known as V960 Mon, also surrounded by a spiral-patterned disc. This system has exhibited signs of gravitational instability, where clumps of gas and dust collapse under their gravity, potentially leading to the formation of planets or brown dwarfs.

The team found a compact, luminous object near one of the spiral arms. Though its exact nature is still uncertain, it could be either a forming planet or a brown dwarf, an object too large to be a planet but not massive enough to ignite as a star.

If confirmed, this would be the first clear evidence of such an object forming through gravitational instability.

These observations open up new opportunities to witness planet formation as it happens, offering clues to understanding how planets, including those in our own solar system, form and evolve.

Studies of ice as it is found in most of the universe have revealed it is a lot more complex than previously thought. Scientists at University College London and the University of Cambridge in the UK, have now found evidence that, while it does not have the regular repeating arrangement of atoms of fully crystalline materials, neither does it have the completely random arrangement of amorphous materials.

‘The crystalline state has got zero complexity, right? It’s just one building block after the next,’ says Christoph Salzmann at UCL, a corresponding author alongside Angelos Michaelides at the University of Cambridge. While complete disorder doesn’t have any complexity either, ‘as you allow for some order to develop within the disorder, this is where complexity arises’, he adds. ‘We now fully appreciate the complexity of the material, but this leads us on to the next steps of investigation.’

‘In a sense, the ice that we know on Earth is really a cosmic curiosity because we’ve got the high temperatures here,’ Salzmann tells Chemistry World. On Earth, water generally freezes into a crystalline structure, but in space, water accumulates on dust particles molecule-by-molecule. It was thought that it was too cold for the molecules to find the energy needed to organise into a crystal so the assumption has been that its structure is completely amorphous.

Over the past decade or so, some scientists have had their doubts about the accuracy of this purely amorphous description, among them Salzmann. However, the calculations have been beyond most computers until recently, as the simulation needs to contain enough water molecules for thousands of grains of ice to form, each of them containing thousands of water molecules.

Fortunately, not only have processors become faster, but they also have algorithms to distribute calculations over several processors in parallel. As a result the researchers – among them Michael Davies, then a researcher at UCL and University of Cambridge, who worked on the computational side of the project – could calculate the diffraction properties of materials with ice crystals formed at different rates – which equates to the size of the crystals formed – and compare them with experimental values from experiments on low-density amorphous ice. The structure they landed on was of numerous randomly oriented tiny ice crystals with thick amorphous regions between them.

Calculating the arrangement that results when a full polycrystalline version of ice with no amorphous regions is allowed to relax also led to the same structure of tiny grains with thick amorphous regions in between them. ‘It comes down to basically ice being a soft material,’ says Salzmann, noting that water is made of very flexible molecules. As a result, the regions between crystals at different orientations are pulled out of their crystalline structure into ‘disordered, more complex structures’.

Experiments comparing how low-density amorphous ice produced by deposition crystallises, compared with low-density amorphous ice made by dropping the temperature of liquid water very fast also provided evidence of nanocrystals in the amorphous state. ‘If something is completely disordered,’ says Salzmann, ‘if you crystallise it, it should always give the same thing, but that’s not what we found.’ The structure that emerged was found to depend on the parent amorphous material.

This discovery holds implications for origin of life theories based on biomolecules arriving on Earth from outer space in ice grains on meteorites. Although it is possible the biomolecules could still travel to Earth that way, thanks to the thick amorphous regions, as ‘nothing is soluble in crystalline ice’ there is less room for biomolecules.

Alexander Shluger, who was not involved in this work and heads a different group at UCL focused on the theoretical study of the structure of matter, suggests that this paper ‘will strongly contribute to the ongoing discussion of atomic structure of non-crystalline solids with a unique and insightful perspective on the structure of low-density amorphous ice’.

These twin spacecraft are set to investigate how our planet’s magnetic shield defends us from space weather, potentially revolutionising our knowledge of solar interactions with Earth.

Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:13 am PDT on Wednesday from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, the TRACERS mission marks a new era in heliophysics.

Within hours, ground control confirmed communication with both satellites, signalling the start of a groundbreaking scientific journey.

Sean Duffy, NASA’s acting Administrator, highlighted the significance of the mission: “NASA is proud to launch TRACERS to demonstrate and expand American preeminence in space science research and technology.

“The TRACERS satellites will move us forward in decoding space weather and further our understanding of the connection between Earth and the Sun.

“This mission will yield breakthroughs that will advance our pursuit of the Moon, and subsequently, Mars.”

What TRACERS will do

TRACERS is designed to explore magnetic reconnection – a fundamental process in which magnetic field lines from the Sun and Earth collide, break apart, and explosively realign.

This phenomenon releases tremendous amounts of energy, flinging charged particles toward our atmosphere and creating disturbances known as space weather.

Orbiting through the polar cusp, a funnel-shaped region near Earth’s magnetic poles, the twin satellites will fly just 10 seconds apart.

Over a 12-month primary mission, they will collect an unprecedented 3,000 measurements, providing a time-lapse-like sequence of how magnetic reconnection events evolve and impact our planet.

This region is ideal for studying magnetic interactions because it allows solar wind particles to enter Earth’s atmosphere more directly.

By capturing data on these particles as they descend, TRACERS will offer scientists a clearer picture of how solar storms disrupt satellite operations, GPS signals, and even power grids on Earth.

Commissioning period underway

Before diving into their full science operations, TRACERS will undergo a four-week commissioning phase.

During this period, mission controllers will thoroughly check and calibrate onboard systems to ensure the satellites are ready for the demands of their year-long mission.

Once fully operational, TRACERS will join NASA’s fleet of heliophysics missions, contributing critical data to help safeguard Earth-based and space-based infrastructure from the effects of solar activity.

Hitchhiking science: Athena EPIC, PExT, and REAL

Alongside TRACERS, the Falcon 9 also deployed three secondary payloads: Athena EPIC, PExT, and REAL – each with a unique scientific or technological mission.

Athena EPIC is a technology demonstration designed to streamline future satellite missions. It showcases a modular commercial SmallSat platform that reduces cost and accelerates deployment schedules.

After its two-week commissioning phase, Athena EPIC will spend a year measuring outgoing longwave radiation from Earth, a vital data source for climate monitoring.

PExT (Polylingual Experimental Terminal) will pioneer new communication methods in space. By utilising a software-defined radio system, PExT will demonstrate the ability to switch between commercial and government networks, much like mobile phones do when roaming between service providers. This could pave the way for more flexible and resilient space communications.

REAL (Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss) will study how high-energy electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts are scattered into Earth’s atmosphere.

These belts, shaped by Earth’s magnetic field, contain particles that pose risks to both spacecraft and astronauts. REAL’s insights will improve our understanding of radiation hazards in space.

A leap forward in space weather science

With TRACERS now in orbit, NASA is poised to make significant strides in understanding how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the Sun.

By capturing the fast-moving and explosive dynamics of magnetic reconnection in real time, the mission promises to inform better space weather forecasting, which is vital for protecting technology, astronauts, and life on Earth.

As the TRACERS mission begins its scientific operations, researchers and engineers alike are hopeful it will reveal new details about the invisible forces shaping our planet’s relationship with space.

Thank you. Listen to this article using the player above. ✖

Researchers have identified a key neural switch that controls whether animals instinctively flee from a threat or freeze in place. By comparing two closely related deer-mouse species, they found that this switch is calibrated by evolution to match the animal’s habitat. This neural circuit is hypersensitive in mice living in densely vegetated environments, causing instant escape, but less responsive in their open-field cousins, who are more likely to freeze. In doing so, the research team uncovered an important way in which evolution fine-tunes the brain for survival.

Flee or freeze?

In nature, survival hinges on making the right split-second choice when danger strikes, and the brain’s defensive circuits are built for exactly that task. Yet what counts as the “right” response depends on the landscape: in cluttered woods, swift flight into the underbrush can save your life; on exposed grassland, motionless hiding buys time. How does evolution solve this puzzle? 

In a new study published in Nature, an international research team from Belgium and the USA has uncovered an elegant mechanism that, by tweaking the sensitivity of a danger-response hub in the brain, tailors behavior to each environment without redesigning the whole system.

Forest mice vs open-field mice

When a shadow of a potential predator looms overhead, forest mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) dash for cover, while their open-field cousins (Peromyscus polionotus) freeze in place. The researchers set out to pinpoint the brain switch that sets those opposite instincts.

“To precisely measure escape behavior, we presented both types of mice with stimuli that resembled an aerial predator in a controlled environment,” explains Felix Baier, co-first author and part of the research team at Harvard. “We found that open-field mice required roughly twice the stimulus intensity to trigger escape compared with their forest relatives, indicating a substantial difference in how they processed the threat stimulus.”

A switch in the brain

Using cutting-edge neural recordings with Neuropixels probes and manipulation techniques, the researchers traced these behavioral differences to a central command hub for escape actions: the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG), a group of neurons deep in the brain. “We were surprised to find that evolution acted in a central brain region, downstream of peripheral sensory perception, because for evolution to change a behavior, it has often been thought that the easiest and most efficient way would be to just change the sensory inputs,” says Baier.

Both species perceive the looming threat identically as evidenced by comparable responses along the circuit from the eye to the dPAG when the animals saw the stimulus without reacting to it. However, the activation of the dPAG differed significantly in the case where the mice escaped from the threat.

“Our monitoring of neural activity revealed a stark contrast: in forest deer mice, escaping from a potential threat in the sky is enabled by an instant ‘run’ command in the dPAG, whereas the dPAG of its open field cousin does not send any such commands. This divergence can be understood as an evolutionary repurposing of neural circuits to finetune survival response,” says Katja Reinhard, who is the other co-first author and a former postdoc at NERF (part of imec, KU Leuven and VIB), now leading her own group at SISSA, Italy.

Further, by using advanced methods that let scientists activate or silence specific brain regions, the team demonstrated a causal connection. Artificially stimulating dPAG neurons in forest mice made them escape even in the absence of a threat. Conversely, using chemical methods to dampen dPAG activity raised their escape threshold, making their behavior more like that of their cousins. 

Built-in flexibility

The study not only sheds light on how instinctive behaviors like freezing or fleeing are controlled but also underscores the flexibility of the brain’s internal architecture, explain lead authors Prof. Karl Farrow (imec, KU Leuven, VIB) and Prof. Hopi Hoekstra (Harvard).

Farrow: “By comparing these two related species we uncovered a switch that balances freeze versus flight, showing how natural selection fine-tunes behavior without rewiring the senses.”

Hoekstra: “Our new discovery illustrates a fundamental evolutionary principle: natural selection often tweaks existing neural circuits rather than constructing entirely new pathways.”

Reference: Baier F, Reinhard K, Nuttin B, et al. The neural basis of species-specific defensive behaviour in Peromyscus mice. Nature. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09241-2

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

The underground fungi networks that help sustain Earth’s ecosystems are in need of urgent conservation action, according to researchers from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).

The scientists found that 90 percent of mycorrhizal fungi biodiversity hotspots were located in unprotected ecosystems, the loss of which could lead to lower carbon emissions reduction rates, crop productivity and reduce the resilience of ecosystems to climate extremes.

Mycorrhizal fungi “cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail and biodiversity above ground begins to unravel… 450m years ago, there were no plants on Earth and it was because of these mycorrhizal fungal networks that plants colonised the planet and began supporting human life,” said Executive Director of SPUN Dr. Toby Kiers, as The Guardian reported. “If we have healthy fungal networks, then we will have greater agricultural productivity, bigger and beautiful flowers, and can protect plants against pathogens.”

Excited to get these data into the hands of decision makers.

[image or embed]

— Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) (@spun.earth) July 25, 2025 at 4:21 AM

Using over 2.8 billion fungal sequences from 130 countries, the scientists were able to create high-resolution, predictive biodiversity maps of the planet’s underground mycorrhizal fungal communities.

“For centuries, we’ve mapped mountains, forests, and oceans. But these fungi have remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land,” Kiers said in a press release from SPUN. “This is the first time we’re able to visualize these biodiversity patterns — and it’s clear we are failing to protect underground ecosystems.”

The research was the first time a scientific application of SPUN’s 2021 world mapping initiative was done on a large scale.

^{Map from SPUN’s Underground Atlas shows predicted arbuscular mycorrhizal biodiversity patterns across underground ecosystems. Bright colors indicate higher richness and endemism. SPUN}

Mycorrhizal fungi help regulate the world’s ecosystems and climate by forming underground networks through which they provide essential nutrients to plants and draw more than 13 billion tons of carbon annually into soils — roughly a third of global fossil fuel emissions.

“Despite their key role as planetary circulatory systems for carbon and nutrients, mycorrhizal fungi have been overlooked in climate change strategies, conservation agendas, and restoration efforts,” the press release said. “This is problematic because disruption of networks accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss.”

Just 9.5 percent of fungal biodiversity hotspots are found inside existing protected areas.

“For too long, we’ve overlooked mycorrhizal fungi. These maps help alleviate our fungus blindness and can assist us as we rise to the urgent challenges of our times,” said Dr. Merlin Sheldrake, impact director at SPUN.

SPUN is featured in @science.org in a piece written by @humbertobasilio.bsky.social. Learn where some of the most unique fungal communities exist, such as West Africa’s Guinean forests, Tasmania’s temperate rainforests, and Brazil’s Cerrado savanna.

Read here: www.science.org/content/arti…

[image or embed]— Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) (@spun.earth) July 25, 2025 at 6:33 AM

SPUN was launched with the aim of mapping fungal communities to develop resources for decision-makers in policy, law and climate and conservation initiatives.

“Conservation groups, researchers, and policymakers can use the platform to identify biodiversity hotspots, prioritize interventions, and inform protected area designations. The tool enables decision-makers to search for underground ecosystems predicted to house unique, endemic fungal communities and explore opportunities to establish underground conservation corridors,” SPUN said.

The findings of the study, “Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected,” were published in the journal Nature.

“These maps are more than scientific tools — they can help guide the future of conservation,” said lead author of the study Dr. Michael Van Nuland, lead data scientist at SPUN. “Food security, water cycles, and climate resilience all depend on safeguarding these underground ecosystems.”

Prominent advisors to the work include conservationist Jane Goodall, authors Paul Hawken and Michael Pollan, and founder of the Fungi Foundation Giuliana Furci.

“The idea is to ensure underground biodiversity becomes as fundamental to environmental decision-making as satellite imagery,” said Jason Cremerius, SPUN’s chief strategy officer.

The maps will be crucial in leveraging fungi for the regeneration of degraded ecosystems.

“Restoration practices have been dangerously incomplete because the focus has historically been on life aboveground,” said Dr. Alex Wegmann, a lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy. “These high-resolution maps provide quantitative targets for restoration managers to establish what diverse mycorrhizal communities could and should look like.”

The international network of 96 “Underground Explorers” from nearly 80 countries and more than 400 scientists are currently sampling the most remote and hard-to-access underground ecosystems on Earth, including those in Bhutan, Mongolia, Ukraine and Pakistan.

While just 0.001 percent of the surface of our planet has been sampled, SPUN’s dataset already includes more than 40,000 specimens representing 95,000 mycorrhizal fungal taxa.

“These maps reveal what we stand to lose if we fail to protect the underground,” Kiers said.

For a few days in December 2010, the world fantasized about the discovery of extraterrestrial life. NASA had sent out a press release to present “an astrobiological discovery” that would impact the search for life beyond Earth. The result was one of the biggest scientific controversies in recent history, and this Thursday a new chapter was written with the unilateral decision by the prestigious research journal Science to withdraw the study. In it, 12 scientists from NASA and the United States Geological Survey claimed to have discovered an alternative life form living in Mono Lake, California, that thrived on arsenic, a compound capable of annihilating any other known organism.

“Science has decided that this Research Article meets the criteria for retraction by today’s standards. Therefore, we are retracting the paper,” wrote Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the American journal, one of the most influential in the world, in an editorial on Thursday. The journal’s editor attributes his decision to the ongoing controversy surrounding the original study. The journal’s editors took months to publish the final version of the paper, and did so alongside several comments from other experts questioning its conclusions. A year later, two independent teams attempted to replicate the results and found no evidence that the life form in question, a bacterium named GFAJ-1, was capable of integrating arsenic into its DNA. The alleged discovery contradicted all other known life forms on the planet, which are based on six universal chemical compounds: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.

According to the journal’s own rules, a study can only be retracted if its authors are found to have intentionally manipulated the data. To date, there is no evidence of this, the editor of Science acknowledges. But ever since the date when the study was published, the standards for retracting papers “have broadened,” he explains. After an independent ethics committee reviewed the case, it was decided to withdraw the work. In a blog post published alongside the retraction announcement, Thorpe and Science’s executive editor, Valda Vinson, issue a mea culpa: “a number of factors led to the publication of a paper with seriously flawed content, including the peer review process and editorial decisions that we made. With this retraction—and with all retractions and corrections—we acknowledge and take responsibility for the role that we played in the paper’s publication.”

Eleven of the 12 authors of the original study—one of them died in 2021—reject the retraction of their article, which they continue to stand by. The scientists are particularly critical of Science’s change of criteria, whose scope goes far beyond this journal and touches the heart of the most accepted procedures for conducting and publishing science worldwide. “We disagree with this standard, which extends beyond matters of research integrity. Disputes about the conclusions of papers, including how well they are supported by the available evidence, are a normal part of the process of science. Scientific understanding evolves through that process, often unexpectedly, sometimes over decades. Claims should be made, tested, challenged, and ultimately judged on the scientific merits by the scientific community itself,” they write in a digital letter to the journal.

The last signatory of this letter is Felisa Wolfe-Simon, probably the person who was most radically affected by this entire controversy. She was the preeminent voice at the famous press conference held at NASA headquarters in Washington, where she said: “We’ve cracked open the door to what’s possible for life elsewhere in the universe. And that’s profound,” the biologist asserted. Along with other colleagues, she also said that this discovery would require a new take on what constitutes life.

Wolfe-Simon rose to worldwide fame and, just days later, was crucified in a wave of criticism on the internet and emerging social platform like Twitter, now X.

The researcher left NASA and tried to continue working as a scientist, but she never managed to get published or attract new research grants. She quit science and became a professional oboe player, she told The New York Times.

The editors of Science now express their “empathy” with Wolfe-Simon for the “verbal abuse” she suffered. In recent years, Wolfe-Simon has tried to return to research on her own, for now outside of academic institutions. “I became radioactive,” she says of the media storm and the isolation she experienced.

The situation is very different from what other NASA scientists experienced, such as Chris McKay, who in 1996 announced the discovery of extraterrestrial life in a meteorite with then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, a finding that was soon dismissed. Despite this, he remains an active scientist at the space agency. The same is true of several of Wolfe-Simon’s fellow students, who remain active in the field of astrobiology. The possible difference is that in 2010, the internet made public lynchings possible practically in real time, beyond the pause and peer review required by science.

The biologist Pepa Antón, from the University of Alicante in eastern Spain, remembers the case well. She told reporters at the time that although the scientists presented “convincing” data, other teams would have to replicate the results. “Maintaining that DNA can be based on arsenic is very drastic; it required abundant evidence that has never been obtained,” Antón explains in a telephone conversation. The scientist is highly critical of the journal’s role. “I understand why the authors resent the retraction, because no one doubts that their behavior was always ethical. It amazes me how in science, rival factions sometimes emerge as if it were a football game. There were tremendous detractors as well as defenders, because ultimately, the idea of an alternative life to the known one was truly mind-blowing. It was very unfair. The ones who did the wrong thing were the people who published it,” she argues.

Ricardo Amils, a researcher at the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, affiliated with NASA, was one of the most notable defenders of the study led by Wolfe-Simon, whom he knew personally. The scientist says that the retraction “is quite rare.” “Science doesn’t take into account the most important argument that the authors emphasize in their letter of protest, which has to do with the fact that the experiment replications refuting the work were not conducted under the same growth conditions of the microorganism, a fundamental element in microbiology,” Amils reasons.

Independent groups that attempted to breed the original arsenic-using bacteria found that these halomonads were indeed resistant to the compound, but it was not clear that they used it instead of phosphorus in their DNA.

These results were published in 2012, but the paper was not retracted then. Science editors argue that they have decided to withdraw the study now, in part because of renewed media pressure. “Any microbiologist knows that this is not a true refutation, but rather that under their conditions they were unable to reproduce the original results, concluding that DNA contamination was the cause of the misinterpretation of the retracted paper’s results. For me, this is an example of the direction science is taking in this world today. There must be important people who have demanded that, after so many years, a paper be refuted, using arguments that are more than scientifically questionable,” Amils ventures.

César Ángel Menor, a professor of Biochemistry at the University of Alcalá, Spain, considers the controversy a textbook case. “We used this article as an example of flawed science; I’ve even used it in class as a case study for students, in exercises in which they had to evaluate why the work reached incorrect conclusions,” he explained to the SMC website. “Now, finally, the article has been retracted, a decision I disagree with. Clearly, there was no misconduct or lack of professionalism on the part of the authors of the original article; it was simply errors in the interpretation and discussion of experimental data, something that is common in science,” he added.

Andrés de la Escosura, from the Autonomous University of Madrid, is surprised that it has taken so long to reach a decision. “We must ask ourselves whether this whole debate has been truly productive, and also about the excessive media coverage of some scientific organizations and certain lines of research,” he explains to SMC. “It’s important not to forget that the article by Wolfe-Simon et al. was announced with great fanfare at a press conference held by NASA, which now seems clearly excessive,” he adds.

Skip to main content

Discover more from Physics World

Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors

A startling new discovery at world’s most militarised glacier might put climate activists on the backfoot as deniers of climate change are celebrating.

A surprising image from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that Asia’s Karakoram mountain range has been gaining ice and merging, contrary to the popular belief that glaciers are melting due to global warming.

The image taken by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023 shows that the Siachen glacier is slowly merging with the Lolofond and Teram Shehr glaciers.

Siachen is considered the most dangerous glacier on Earth as it is at the borders of three nuclear powered states, China, Pakistan, India – as well as conflict-affected nation Afghanistan.

The South Asian neighbours Pakistan and India have exchanged blows to take control of the region and both nations have been positioning troops on their side of the glacier since 1984.

This new discovery comes as a ray for hope as several climate studies have found that most glaciers worldwide are melting faster due to rising temperatures.

However, this is not the first report of localised glacial growth as previously Antarctica was also discovered to be reversing its decade long trend of melting.

Researchers based in Shanghai concluded in May that the Earth’s southernmost continent has seen a record amount of ice forming since 2021.

Despite isolated cases of ice accumulation, climate change still remains one of the greatest threats to the world as a 2023 study in Earth System Science Data warned that the merger of three glaciers in Asia’s Karakoram range might not last for long due to rising global temperatures.

NASA Earth Observatory revealed that the temperature of the Earth has risen by 1.1° Celsius since 1880. 

During this period, the moon reaches its first quarter phase on Friday August 1st. At that time the moon will be located 90 degrees east of the sun and will set near 23:00 local summer time (LST) on the previous evening. This weekend the waxing crescent moon will set during the early evening hours and will be long gone by the time the more active morning hours arrive. The estimated total hourly rates for evening observers this weekend should be near 4 as seen from mid-northern latitudes (45N) and 4 as seen from tropical southern locations (25S). For morning observers, the estimated total hourly rates should be near 20 as seen from mid-northern latitudes (45N) and 16 as seen from tropical southern locations (25S). The actual rates seen will also depend on factors such as personal light and motion perception, local weather conditions, alertness, and experience in watching meteor activity. Evening rates during this period are slightly reduced due to moonlight. Note that the hourly rates listed below are estimates as viewed from dark sky sites away from urban light sources. Observers viewing from urban areas will see less activity as only the brighter meteors will be visible from such locations.

The radiant (the area of the sky where meteors appear to shoot from) positions and rates listed below are exact for Saturday night/Sunday morning July 26/27. These positions do not change greatly day to day so the listed positions may be used during this entire period. Most star atlases (available online and at bookstores and planetariums) will provide maps with grid lines of the celestial coordinates so that you may find out exactly where these positions are located in the sky. I have also included charts of the sky that display the radiant positions for evening, midnight, and morning. The center of each chart is the sky directly overhead at the appropriate hour. These charts are oriented for facing south but can be used for any direction by rotating the charts to the desired direction. A planisphere or computer planetarium program is also useful in showing the sky at any time of night on any date of the year. Activity from each radiant is best seen when it is positioned highest in the sky (culmination), either due north or south along the meridian, depending on your latitude. Radiants that rise after midnight will not reach their highest point in the sky until daylight. For these radiants, it is best to view them during the last few hours before dawn. It must be remembered that meteor activity is rarely seen at its radiant position. Rather they shoot outwards from the radiant, so it is best to center your field of view so that the radiant lies toward the edge and not the center. Viewing there will allow you to easily trace the path of each meteor back to the radiant (if it is a shower member) or in another direction if it is sporadic. Meteor activity is not seen from radiants that are located far below the horizon. The positions below are listed in a west to east manner in order of right ascension (celestial longitude). The positions listed first are located further west therefore are accessible earlier in the night while those listed further down the list rise later in the night.

 

These sources of meteoric activity are expected to be active this week

.

The July gamma Draconids (GDR) were first noticed by Japanese observers of SonotoCo and the IMO’s network team of Sirko Molau and Juergen Rendtel in 2009. This stream is active from July 23-August 3 with maximum activity occurring on July 28. The radiant is currently located at 18:36 (279) +51, which places it in extreme southeastern Draco, 4 degrees southeast of the 2nd magnitude star known as Eltanin (gamma Draconis). The radiant also lies 11 degrees northwest of the brilliant zero magnitude star Vega (alpha Lyrae). These meteors are not well seen from the southern hemisphere as the radiant does not rise very high in their northern sky. Observers concentrating on this activity should face toward the northern sky near 23:00 LST best view these meteors. With an entry velocity of 27 km/sec., the average July gamma Draconid meteor would be of medium-slow velocity. In 2016, this stream produced a strong outburst that lasted approximately one hour. Nothing unusual has occurred since 2016. Some researchers feel these meteors are related to the kappa Cygnids, which are active in August. Normal rates for this shower is less than 1 shower member per hour no matter your location and perhaps 1 per hour at maximum as seen from northern latitudes.

The alpha Capricornids (CAP) are active from July 7 through August 13, peaking on July 30th. The radiant is currently located at 20:20 (305)  -11. This position lies northwestern Capricornus, 2 degrees north of the naked eye double star known as Algedi (alpha² Capricornii). Current rates are expected to be near 2 per hour no matter your location. These meteors are best seen near 01:00 LST, when the radiant lies highest in the northern sky. With an entry velocity of 23 km/sec., the average meteor from this source would be of medium-slow velocity.

The large Anthelion (ANT) radiant is currently centered at 21:08 (317) -15. This position lies in central Capricornus, 3 degrees north of the 4^th magnitude star known as Dorsum (theta Capricornii). This radiant is best placed near 02:00 LST when it lies on the meridian and is nearly overhead. Rates at this time should be near 2 per hour as seen from the northern hemisphere and 3 per hour as seen from south of the equator. With an entry velocity of 30 km/sec., the average Anthelion meteor would be of medium-slow velocity.

The Southern delta Aquariids (SDA) are active from July 19 through August 13 with maximum activity occurring on July 30. The radiant is currently located at 22:31 (338) -17. This area of the sky is located in southwestern Aquarius, 4 degrees west of the 3rd magnitude star known as Skat (delta Aquarii). This radiant is best placed near 0300 LST, when it lies on the meridian and is nearly overhead. Hourly rates at this time should be near 3 as seen from the northern hemisphere and near 4 as seen from south of the equator.  At maximum these rates increase to 10 and 15 per hour. With an entry velocity of 41 km/sec., the average meteor from this source would be of medium velocity.

The Perseids (PER) are active from July 17 through August 29, with maximum activity occurring on August 13. The radiant is currently located at 01:47 (027) +54. This position lies in extreme western Perseus, 4 degrees northwest of the 4th magnitude star known as 51 Andromedae. This area of the sky is best placed for viewing during the last dark hour before dawn when it lies highest in the northeastern sky. Maximum activity is not until August 13th so current rates are expected to be near 2 as seen from the northern hemisphere and <1 as seen from south of the equator. With an entry velocity of 59 km/sec., the average meteor from this source would be of swift velocity. Viewers in the southern hemisphere have a limited view of this shower as the radiant only rises just before dawn.

Sporadic meteors are those meteors that cannot be associated with any known meteor shower. All meteor showers are evolving and disperse over time to the point where they are no longer recognizable. Away from the peaks of the major annual showers, these sporadic meteors make up the bulk of the activity seen each night. As seen from the mid-northern hemisphere (45N) one would expect to see during this period approximately 12 sporadic meteors per hour during the last hour before dawn as seen from rural observing sites. Evening rates would be near 3 per hour. As seen from the tropical southern latitudes (25S), morning rates would be near 9 per hour as seen from rural observing sites and 2 per hour during the evening hours. Locations between these two extremes would see activity between these listed figures. Evening rates are slightly reduced due to moonlight.

The list below offers information in tabular form. Rates and positions in the table are exact for Saturday night/Sunday morning.

SHOWER	DATE OF MAXIMUM ACTIVITY	CELESTIAL POSITION	ENTRY VELOCITY	CULMINATION	HOURLY RATE	CLASS
		RA (RA in Deg.) DEC	Km/Sec	Local Summer Time	North-South
July gamma Draconids (GDR)	Jul 28	18:36 (279) +51	27	23:00	<1 – <1	III
alpha Capricornids (CAP)	Jul 31	20:20 (305)  -11	23	01:00	2 – 2	II
Anthelion (ANT)	–	21:08 (317)  -15	30	02:00	2 – 3	II
Southern delta Aquariids (SDA)	Jul 31	22:31 (338)  -17	41	03:00	3 – 4	I
Perseids (PER)	Aug 12	01:40 (025) +53	59	06:00	2 – <1	I

Class Explanation: A scale to group meteor showers by their intensity:

• Class I: the strongest annual showers with Zenith Hourly Rates normally ten or better.
• Class II: reliable minor showers with ZHR’s normally two to ten.
• Class III: showers that do not provide annual activity. These showers are rarely active yet have the potential to produce a major display on occasion.
• Class IV: weak minor showers with ZHR’s rarely exceeding two. The study of these showers is best left to experienced observers who use plotting and angular velocity estimates to determine shower association. These weak showers are also good targets for video and photographic work. Observers with less experience are urged to limit their shower associations to showers with a rating of I to III.