Category: 7. Science

  • Triumph of Mariner 4 – NASA Science

    Triumph of Mariner 4 – NASA Science

    Sixty years ago, NASA’s Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mars, capturing the first close-up images of any planet beyond Earth. Its pictures of a barren, cratered surface snuffed out notions of little green men and alien civilizations, but they ignited the era of Mars exploration.

    For as long as humans have looked up, Mars has beckoned. 

    A pale orange point of light, unlike anything else in the night sky. A glowing cinder, floating above the campfire. Tantalizing, but out of reach. What’s up there? What does it look like — up close?

    No one could know for sure, even using the finest instruments and telescopes on Earth, when peering from 35 million miles away (at its closest).

    But we kept trying, even for just a glimpse.

    How we used to see Mars:

    1610: Galileo, Cassini Bring Mars Closer

    Galileo was the first to view Mars through a telescope, in 1610. Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini observed the southern polar ice cap, and measured the length of the Martian day accurately to within three minutes, in 1666. In the centuries that followed, others sketched what they saw through ever-improving optics, and according to the Globe Museum of the Austrian National Library, the surface of Mars had been completely mapped by 1841.

    Completely — perhaps. Accuracy was still a work in progress.

    Then, one image changed everything:

    Robert B. Leighton

    Mariner 4 Principal Investigator, Caltech, speaking at the White House July 29, 1965

    Mariner 4: Image No. 11, Mariner Crater

    This photo clearly showed craters upon craters, and nothing else — a “scientifically startling fact,” according to the Mariner imaging team. They saw a desolate landscape that had scarcely changed in 2 to 5 billion years, an environment more like the lifeless Moon than any place on Earth.

    They called the revelation “profound,” not just for what it suggested about Mars’ past and present, but because it “further enhances the uniqueness of Earth within the solar system.”

    Mariner 4: Image No. 11, Mariner Crater

    No canals, but a path forward

    Mariner flew above areas where canals had been drawn, and saw none. If the cratered, barren, untouched surface disappointed some observers, many scientists saw an opportunity. If these areas had gone undisturbed for 2 billion years, they could one day reveal what rocky planets such as Earth were like, in their first couple billion years of existence — clues that had long since been wiped from Earth’s surface by plate tectonics and other processes.

    And even if Mariner revealed no signs of life on Mars, they believed Mars could one day serve as a time capsule, showing how life arose on Earth. “If the Martian surface is truly in its primitive form,” the Mariner team said, “that surface may prove to be the best — perhaps the only — place in the solar system still preserving clues to original organic development, traces of which have long since disappeared from Earth.”

    Those are the same clues the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are searching Mars for right now — signs of past life.

    Success, even before the photos

    Two days after the flyby, when only one of 21 complete images from Mars had arrived, the New York Times published an editorial, “Triumph of Mariner 4,” which said, “it is already clear that Mariner 4’s historic journey to Mars is the most successful and most important experiment man has yet conducted in space, as well as one of the most brilliant engineering and scientific achievements of all time.” 

    Mariner 4 was not just there for snapshots. Its other instruments revealed that the atmospheric pressure on Mars was less than 1% that on Earth’s surface — too low for liquid water to exist. And Mars had no discernable magnetic field, unlike Earth, so no protection from a deadly barrage of solar and cosmic radiation. Mars was proven to be hostile — but to life on its own surface, not to anyone on Earth.

    ‘Color-by-Numbers’ Mars

    The first digital image from space was a handmade craft project

    Mariner 4 began capturing its images of Mars at 8:18:49 p.m. EDT on July 14, 1965. It finished about 25 minutes later, but the mission team still had many more hours to wait before seeing the finished product. Too eager to wait, some of them decided to skip ahead.

    What’s taking so long?

    Every image that Mariner captured took about eight hours to reach Earth, faint signals beamed 134 million miles to the enormous radio dish antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network, in South Africa, Australia, and Goldstone, California. Those stations relayed the data to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. For each image that Mariner’s camera captured, 200 pixels wide and 200 lines deep, the spacecraft assigned a number to every one of those 40,000 pixels based on its shade of gray — a scale from 0 (white) to 63 (black). When that string of numbers reached JPL, teletype machines printed page after page of the figures. Meanwhile computers processed the data, converting the digits back to shades of gray, and piecing together the full images.

    From the numbers coming over the teletype, the mission team at least knew Mariner was sending data. But some engineers couldn’t wait for that first image. They wanted to make sure all the equipment had worked properly, and that the numbers coming from Mariner 4 were correct, and would translate to actual images. Plus, they were just eager to see Mars.

    They took the teletype printouts of the numbers representing the first image — row upon row of digits — and cut those into strips. They stapled the strips to a wall, lining them up in the correct order to recreate the 200×200 pixel image.

    Engineer Richard Grumm bought a set of pastels from a local art store to shade the ranges of numbers on their printouts; they hoped to emulate what the first image would look like, when the computers finally finished their processing. The team also created a color chart, to get their shading right.

    “We created an image that way on paper, faster than they could reconstruct a picture in the computer,” said JPL’s John Casani, then Mariner 4 spacecraft systems manager. With each image taking more than eight hours to download and process, for all of the images Mariner 4 captured (21 complete and one partial), it took 10 days to transmit the data to Earth and convert it into the black-and-white pictures. By then, only the first three were made public. The remainder were released at a White House ceremony on July 29.

    Finished artwork, and the real thing

    In their haste to see data translated into a usable image, the engineers inadvertently created a work of art. So they cut it from the wall and presented it to JPL Director William Pickering. Today — properly framed and preserved — it hangs outside the visitors’ gallery at JPL’s historic High Bay 1, the cavernous clean room where Mariner 4 had been assembled, as were all five of NASA’s Mars rovers, and numerous other historic spacecraft.

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    photo sharing, across 134 million miles

    The First Mars Close-Up Photo

    This documentary clip shows the Mariner 4 team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, waiting for computers to process the data sent from the spacecraft back to Earth, turning that into an image, and then the moment they see the picture they had been waiting for.


    Watch the Full Documentary, ‘JPL and the Space Age: The Changing Face of Mars’

    The 21 full images from Mariner 4 were historic, a view of Mars that humans had been straining to see for centuries, if not longer. But the images covered only 1% of the planet’s surface — a fleeting glimpse.

    We needed to see more. We needed to go back. So we did.

    back to mars

    The Missions that Followed Mariner 4, and What They Showed Us

    The NASA missions that succeeded Mariner 4 — making their own history in Red Planet exploration — have delivered images and insights only dreamed of in 1965. Since then, and through today, orbiters, landers, five different rovers, and even a tiny helicopter have traversed Mars — continually teaching us more about the Red Planet, about the origins of our solar system and our world, and whether life has ever existed someplace other than Earth.

    Read: ‘Advances in NASA Imaging Changed How World Sees Mars’

    Kids! dream it, then draw it

    Space Place Art Challenge: Mars and Mariner 4

    Sixty years ago, humans had never seen Mars up close, only long-distance views from telescopes on Earth. Then NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft took the first surprising pictures of the Red Planet, on July 14, 1965. Draw what you think you’d see in your first glimpse of Mars: Little green men? Big red rocks? Ancient alien cities, or a dusty, digging rover? Show us what you imagine!

    Visit Space Place to Learn More

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  • Tiny Owl Opens His Eyes For The First Time Thanks To A ‘Miracle’

    Tiny Owl Opens His Eyes For The First Time Thanks To A ‘Miracle’

    Last month, the staff at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center (RRWC) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, received a distressing call from a man over an hour away in Halifax. The man seemed frantic as he described the tiny feathered baby he’d just spontaneously rescued from a dangerous situation.

    “A kind-hearted man named Michael spotted the tiny creature alongside the road and instinctively pulled over to save it,” RRWC wrote on Facebook. “It was nothing short of a miracle that he noticed such a small animal in evident pain and distress.”

    Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

    The baby owl lay helpless on the side of the road with his eyes covered in a blinding layer of gunk, but luckily Michael refused to leave him behind. He carefully wrapped the owlet in a towel, then raced home, where his wife helped figure out the next steps. The couple called RRWC and explained the urgent situation.

    “Their concern was palpable as they described the severe injuries to the right side of the owl’s face, leaving them unsure if it had also lost its eye,” RRWC wrote.

    Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

    RRWC agreed to take in the baby, and the couple soon set off on a road trip to the wildlife center with the injured owlet in their laps. As soon as they got to RRWC, the staff jumped into action to help the struggling baby.

    “Upon arrival, our dedicated team quickly admitted the owl, and our skilled rehabilitation specialist set to work, carefully cleaning the deep wounds above and below its eye,” RRWC wrote. “Despite its tiny size, the owl faced significant challenges that required meticulous cleaning, flushing, and medication.”

    Neither Michael nor the RRWC staff knew for sure what’d happened to the tiny owl. But as the medical team slowly wiped the debris away from the owl’s eyes, they got a clearer picture of just how brave he was.

    The owlet sat patiently as the crew worked on his face until, suddenly, he cracked one eye open.

    Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

    The staff was thrilled to see one of the baby owl’s eyes, but they were still worried about the second one.

    They continued cleaning, and before they knew it, the sweet baby opened his second eye. With the owlet now staring directly at them, the team sighed with relief at the confirmation that both eyes were healthy.

    Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

    After the successful procedure, the RRWC staff set the owlet in a cozy enclosure for the night, hoping he would feel even better after a good night’s sleep. The next morning, they were pleasantly surprised to see him more alert than ever before.

    “In a breathtaking turnaround, less than 24 hours later, the owl began to show signs of improvement, perking up and slowly accepting hand-feeding,” RRWC wrote.

    Raven Ridge Wildlife Center

    Thanks to Michael’s diligent rescue efforts and RRWC’s dedication to cleaning his face, the owl felt much better the next day and has continued to thrive in the weeks since. He is still receiving care at RRWC to regain his strength before being released back into the wild. But, thankfully, his worst days are behind him.

    And, as the staff at RRWC see it, there’s only one person to thank for that.

    “It is truly astonishing how this little owl’s survival hinged on the compassion of a stranger willing to go to extraordinary lengths,” RRWC wrote. “Without Michael’s commitment to seeking help, this vulnerable baby owl might not have made it. We are profoundly grateful for the kindness that transformed this little one’s fate.”

    To help animals like this baby owl get the care they need, you can donate to Raven Ridge Wildlife Center here.

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  • Protein sequences decoded from extremely old mammal teeth

    Protein sequences decoded from extremely old mammal teeth

    Credit: Martin Lipman

    Researchers have sequenced proteins from an ancient rhino relative from the cold, dry Haughton crater site (shown) in the Canadian Arctic. They are some of the oldest enamel sequences reported.

    Peptides may be able to survive in the enamel of teeth that are tens of millions of years old. Two independent studies have reported on proteins found in ancient teeth, have provided the oldest sequences useful for working out evolutionary relationships between creatures. These proteomes are up to 24 million years old. Both studies were published July 9 in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09231-4).

    “This is all very exciting stuff,” says Evan Saitta, a paleontologist at the Field Museum of Natural History who didn’t work on either paper.

    Researchers often rely on observations of the size and shape of bones to place long-extinct animals into family trees. But that can be tricky. And while researchers could use DNA, the oldest DNA extracted from a large fossil— from a sample found in the Arctic—is around 1.2 million years old. But proteins can typically stick around longer than DNA and could provide a source of molecular data to work out evolutionary relationships that fossil morphology can leave unclear, Saitta says. Until now, the oldest confirmed sample to yield protein data for taxonomy is a 3.7-million-year-old collagen from a camel relative.

    University of Copenhagen biomolecular paleontologist Ryan Paterson and colleagues reasoned that they might be able to find more ancient proteins if they could target not only the perfect locale for preservation—the frigid high Arctic—but also the most promising tissue: enamel. “That super hard, rigid surface that surrounds our teeth,” he says, “could potentially act as a perfect scaffold for these proteins to survive over long time periods.”

    Paterson’s team profiled the proteins from a fossil tooth fragment from an ancient rhino relative that was pulled from the permafrost in northern Canada. This roughly 22-million-year-old enamel yielded around 1,000 peptide matches—enough to place it in its family tree. The proteins had sustained modifications and damage, as expected for ancient proteins. “This is probably the most degraded proteome that we have had access to yet that we can still use for all these purposes,” Paterson says. The taxonomic information from the proteins supports the idea that an important split in the rhino family tree happened more recently than researchers once thought.

    In another study, researchers looked at 10 fossil teeth, ranging from 1.5 million to 29 million years old, from the Turkana Basin in Kenya. “This is one of the harshest environments on the planet,” says mass spectrometrist Timothy Cleland of the Smithsonian Institute and one of the study’s authors. But it’s also a very important area for studying the evolutionary origins and diversification of animals such as the relatives of elephants, rhinos, hippos and hominins, he adds.

    The oldest samples in which the researchers were able to identify peptides are the tooth of an 18-million-year-old rhino relative and 16-million-year-old teeth from three types of proboscideans, a group of elephant relatives. This information could someday help make sense of the ancient elephant family tree, says Daniel Green, a paleontologist at Harvard University and coauthor of the paper. “There’s an enormous amount of controversy among paleontologists about what the evolutionary relationships are between these different proboscidean taxa.”

    In teeth, enamel proteins occur in close association with the biomineral hydroxyapatite. “I’m actually not surprised that you can get proteins preserved on mineral surfaces,” says Karina Sand, a biogeochemist at the University of Copenhagen who wasn’t involved with either study. In separate research, Sand and colleagues sequenced the oldest DNA yet—2-million-year-old molecules stuck onto sediments. She and other researchers are exploring how chemistry mediates the interaction between minerals and proteins. But the age of the proteins found in these new reports—over 15 million years—is surprising, Sand says.

    The two papers differ in some of the techniques used. Those used on the rhino relative from Canadian permafrost are more typical for paleoproteomics studies. The methods are “rock solid,” says Ghent University proteomics expert MaartenDhaenens, who wasn’t part of either project. “It’s very convincing.” The other study reporting proteins from mammal fossils in the Turkana Basin used “a less conventional methodology, and it might require some more verification,” Dhaenens says.

    Protein preservation in cold environments is easier to explain. “If you’re going to find old peptides, the higher latitudes or the colder temperatures are definitely where you’d want to look,” Saitta says. But, he adds, if proteins can last for millions near the equator, future research should be able to find proteins of this age in other environments around the world.

    Chemical & Engineering News

    ISSN 0009-2347

    Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society

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  • Pluto photos from NASA’s New Horizons still captivating scientists decade later

    Pluto photos from NASA’s New Horizons still captivating scientists decade later

    For decades, Pluto remained one of the most mysterious objects in our solar system, until July 14, 2015, when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft became the first mission to visit it up close, capturing breathtaking images of the distant world.

    It took over nine years for New Horizons to reach Pluto after blasting off atop an Atlas 5 rocket on Jan. 19, 2006. After traveling billions of miles through the solar system, New Horizons sent home stunning images of Pluto and its moons, making headlines around the world.

    It took more than 15 months for the spacecraft to send all of the 6.25 gigabytes of photos and data home for scientists to study.

    “Such a lengthy period was necessary because the spacecraft was roughly 4.5 light-hours from Earth and it could only transmit 1-2 kilobits per second,” NASA said.

    Here are some of the best images of Pluto and its moon Charon:

    A composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. Photo courtesy of NASA
    This image of haze layers above Pluto limb was taken by NASA New Horizons spacecraft. About 20 haze layers are seen. Photo courtesy of NASA
    Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. The image was taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. Photo by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Southwest Research Institute
    NASA New Horizons scientists believe that the informally named feature Wright Mons, located south of Sputnik Planum on Pluto, and another, Piccard Mons, could have been formed by the cryovolcanic eruption of ices from beneath Pluto’s surface. Photo courtesy of NASA and JPL
    A detailed global mosaic color map of Pluto is based on a series of three color filter images obtained by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera aboard New Horizons during the NASA spacecraft’s close flyby of Pluto in July 2015. Photo by NASA and JPL
    The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies and their surface features, approved names of 14 surface features on Pluto in August 2017. Image from NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Southwest Research Institute
    An enhanced color mosaic of Pluto taken approximately 15 minutes before New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto. Image by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Southwest Research Institute
    This image was made just 15 minutes after New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, as the spacecraft looked back at Pluto toward the sun. Photo courtesy fo NASA and JPL

    The Pluto flyby changed what astronomers thought they knew about that tiny world. Instead of being just a cold rock, Pluto turned out to have ice mountains as tall as the Rockies, strange heart-shaped plains and even signs of possible underground oceans.

    The mission also gave us our first close-up look at Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, which has deep canyons and a huge dark spot at the pole.

    It was like discovering a whole new world hiding at the edge of our solar system.

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  • Amateur Astrophotographer Captures Saturn’s Solar Eclipse

    Amateur Astrophotographer Captures Saturn’s Solar Eclipse

    AJ Smadi Eclipse on Saturn

    Twenty-year-old AJ Smadi may have only been practicing astrophotography for two years, but his skills have already been garnering attention. One of his images has even been selected as NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day. Last month, he showed off his talents with an incredible photo of a solar eclipse on Saturn. This gas giant will be seeing quite a few eclipses in the near future, and Smadi made sure he was ready with his equipment to capture the event.

    Saturn has more moons than any other planet in our solar system, with a total of 145 confirmed satellites. But only seven of these are large enough to eclipse the sun, casting a shadow on the planet’s surface. In the next few months, one of Saturn’s largest moons, Titan, will transit the planet several times before taking a break until 2040.

    Knowing that these events were about to happen, Smadi used the Stellarium sky app to track the eclipse. Luckily, it was visible not far from his location in Washington, and so he set out with his telescope, camera, and infrared filter. Setting up at 1 a.m., he waited several hours until Saturn was high enough to image. After the shoot, he stacked thousands of images using video captures into one final, incredible photo.

    In it, Titan’s shadow is clearly visible on Saturn’s surface. But that’s not the only fascinating element of Smadi’s photo, as several other moons are also visible. Smadi posted a helpful image with labels to allow everyone to clearly see Dione, Tethys, and Enceladus. And, of course, Saturn’s stunning rings are ever-present, rendered in crisp detail.

    Smadi’s prowess at planetary imaging is astounding considering his age and level of experience, making us excited to see how his skills will continue to grow and develop.

    To stay updated with his work, follow AJ Smadi on Instagram.

    Amateur astrophotographer AJ Smadi captured amazing images of a solar eclipse on Saturn.

    AJ Smadi Eclipse on SaturnAJ Smadi Eclipse on Saturn

    The planet’s moon Titan caused the eclipse, but Smadi captured much more than that in his images.

    AJ Smadi: Instagram | Reddit

    My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by AJ Smadi.

    Related Articles:

    Astrophotographer Travels 3,000 Miles to Photograph Saturn’s Lunar Occultation

    Solar Eclipse Photo Contest Winners Celebrate North America’s Recent Total Eclipse

    Astrophotographer Braves Scorching Heat To Take “Once in a Lifetime” Photo of ISS Transit

    Astrophotographer Travels to Alaska for Epic Photo of Lunar Eclipse and the Northern Lights


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  • The Space Traffic Report: Starlink, ISS docking, and upcoming Falcon 9 & Kuiper launches

    The Space Traffic Report: Starlink, ISS docking, and upcoming Falcon 9 & Kuiper launches













    The Space Traffic Report: Starlink, ISS docking, and upcoming Falcon 9 & Kuiper launches – NASASpaceFlight.com























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  • Primordial Black Hole Flybys Could Alter Exoplanet Orbits

    Primordial Black Hole Flybys Could Alter Exoplanet Orbits

    Though our Solar System and the movement of its planets appears relatively sedate, there are many things that could upset it. Anything with enough mass that got close enough could disrupt planetary orbits. This includes primordial black holes (PBH).

    PBHs are hypothetical black holes from the early Universe. Rather than forming from collapsing stars, these theoretical objects formed from the gravitational collapse of small pockets of extremely dense sub-atomic matter. This would’ve happened shortly after the Big Bang, before any stars shone.

    New research explains how PBHs could affect exoplanet systems if they get too close and how likely it might be. The research is available at arxiv.org and is titled “The Potential Impact of Primordial Black Holes on Exoplanet Systems.” The first author is Garett Brown from Xanadu Quantum Technologies, and the other authors are from Harvard University and the University of Illinois.

    Primordial black holes could’ve formed when overdense regions in the early universe collapsed. Image Credit: By Gema White – https://www.slideserve.com/gema/primordial-black-hole-formation-in-an-axion-like-curvaton-model slide 19. Cropped to remove all elements of original authorship.Based on Kawasaki, Masahiro (2013-03-18). “Primordial black hole formation from an axionlike curvaton model”. Physical Review D 87 (6): 063519. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.87.063519., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131103715

    Primordial black holes were first proposed in 1966 and are purely hypothetical. In recent times, some have proposed that they could explain the massive galaxies the JWST detected in the early Universe. They could potentially be important components of dark matter, or even compose dark matter entirely. If they do exist, they could be as massive as asteroids while as small as an atom. Some could be much more massive, since they’re not restricted to the mass range of stellar-mass black holes. They travel at high speeds, and if they are real, one is likely moving through the Solar System at any given time.

    “We explore the prospect that if there is a sizeable population of primordial black holes (PBH) in our galaxy, then these may also impact the orbits of exoplanets,” the researchers write. “Specifically, in a simplified setting, we study numerically how many planetary systems might have a close encounter with a PBH, and analyze the potential changes to the orbital parameters of systems that undergo PBH flybys.”

    Three-body problems are at the heart of this, with the bodies being a star, a planet, and a PBH. In this case, the PBH performs a flyby of the other two. “Such flybys exchange energy with the planet-star system and may perturb the orbit of the planet,” the researchers explain. “While we will phrase our study in terms of PBH, our
    conclusions should be robust for other compact massive objects since the results are entirely set via their gravitational influence.”

    We know of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets, but high-precision measurements and modelling of their distributed orbital parameters would be needed to infer which ones may have been affected by PBH flybys. This is beyond the capabilities of astronomers. But the topic is a fascinating one.

    “Setting aside the challenges in observations and formation modeling, it is interesting to consider how late-time planetary orbits may be shaped due to interactions between planetary systems and transient close encounters with massive exotic astrophysical bodies that intrude into the parent star’s radius of influence,” the authors write. “Here we present a first analysis of this interesting prospect.”

    The team simulated flyby encounters between a PBH and a solar system with a single star and a single planet. Since PBHs are expected to move at high speeds, these encounters are considered impulsive, whereas an encounter with a slower object would be considered adiabatic. In an adiabatic encounter, the planetary orbit would adjust gradually to the changing gravitational field. In an impulsive encounter, the planetary orbit would be disrupted very suddenly.

    To test how plausible the idea of PBH flybys are, the researchers estimated the number of flybys in the galaxy and their typical velocities. To do that, they based their work on a solar system with one solar-mass star and a planet with a Jupiter-like orbit in terms of its eccentricity and semi-major axis. “We focus on the case that the intruding PBH passes through the system without being captured, i.e. a one time ‘flyby’,” the researchers explain.

    To understand the impact that PBH flybys have on these Jupiter-like systems, the researchers considered three questions:

    • Given a star in a circular orbit around the galactic center at a given distance, how many PBH enter the star’s local neighborhood within a given time period?
    • For a PBH that enters the neighborhood of a star, what is the probability that the PBH comes sufficiently close to appreciably perturb planetary orbits around the star?
    • For a PBH that enters the planet perturbing region, what is the statistical impact on the orbital parameters?

    “By answering each of these questions in turn, we will explore whether PBH (or similar objects) can significantly impact the orbits of exoplanets,” the authors write.

    They found that just like intruding stars, PBH flybys can alter the orbits of planets. How often this happens depends on the masses of PBHs, and their abundance.

    Since we don’t know if PBHs are even real, we also don’t know how abundant they are, or how often they approach solar systems. The team simulated PBHs at different distances from the modelled solar systems to see what would happen.

    This graph shows the probability that a PBH at initial distances of 20, 25, and 30 parsecs will pass within a given distance of closest approach (α) of a star. For star-Jupiter systems we take α = 15 AU. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025. This graph shows the probability that a PBH at initial distances of 20, 25, and 30 parsecs will pass within a given distance of closest approach (α) of a star. For star-Jupiter systems we take α = 15 AU. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025.

    A few factors constrain the number of possible PBHs in the galaxy. Microlensing surveys place some constraints, as does potential dark matter annihilation. The researchers settled on 3 × 106 PBHs for the entire galaxy, or 3 million.

    The figure below shows a cumulative count of PBH flybys in terms of increasing distance to the galactic center. The results are averaged over 100,000 simulations,

    This figure shows the number of systems that undergo PBH flybys, taken to be within a radius α = 15 AU, if there are 3 million primordial black holes in the galaxy. The 15 AU value is how close a PBH would have to come to Jupiter to change its orbit impulsively. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025. This figure shows the number of systems that undergo PBH flybys, taken to be within a radius α = 15 AU, if there are 3 million primordial black holes in the galaxy. The 15 AU value is how close a PBH would have to come to Jupiter to change its orbit impulsively. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025.

    Depending on a PBHs mass and velocity, and the planet’s velocity, the simulated flybys altered the eccentricity of the Jupiter-like planet’s orbit in different amounts.

    This figure shows the resulting eccentricities in the Jupiter-like planet's orbit after PBH flybys with masses of 0.1 solar masses and a velocity of 200 km/second. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025. This figure shows the resulting eccentricities in the Jupiter-like planet’s orbit after PBH flybys with masses of 0.1 solar masses and a velocity of 200 km/second. Image Credit: Brown et al. 2025.

    Other results are possible, but rare, according to the authors. Some PBHs might be captured, and some solar systems might suffer multiple flybys. Nature’s like that.

    Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to test these results observationally.

    “It is interesting to consider whether a population of exotic bodies may be able to explain variations or anomalies in the orbits of planetary systems,” Brown and his co-researchers write. “In principle, precision measurements of exoplanet orbital parameters could be used to infer or constrain the abundances of PBH; however, in practice, the large uncertainties relating to both measurements and planetary formation present significant obstacles.”

    It’s possible that future capabilities will allow these types of measurements, but that is an unknown. If it becomes possible, and if better modelling of exoplanet orbital parameters comes to fruition, then astronomers may be able to place constraints on the number of PBHs and flybys.

    “While we do not expect to be able to use exoplanet observations to place constraints in the near future, this work outlines the general principles of how one might use a future precision catalogue of exoplanets to discover or constrain populations of PBH,” the authors conclude.

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  • Polar vortex shifts trigger U.S. extreme cold snaps despite warming: study

    JERUSALEM, July 11 (Xinhua) — An international research group has found that extreme cold snaps in the United States are driven by disruptions in a high-altitude Arctic air mass called the polar vortex, Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Friday in a statement.

    The study, published in Science Advances, reveals that when the vortex stretches over 16 km above Earth, it pushes freezing air into North America. Two distinct patterns were identified: one targets the U.S. Northwest and western Canada, while the other brings icy conditions to central and eastern states, according to the statement.

    These events link to atmospheric wave shifts that bend the jet stream, dragging Arctic air southward. Since 2015, U.S. Northwest cold extremes increased due to a westward-shifting vortex pattern amplified by Pacific climate cycles.

    The study underscores that climate change causes not just warming but also unpredictable severe weather, said the statement, adding that the study helps explain recent deadly freezes in Texas and the Central Plains. Enditem

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  • Keeping wastewater flowing into tomorrow’s coffee | On the ISS this week July 7 – 11, 2025

    Keeping wastewater flowing into tomorrow’s coffee | On the ISS this week July 7 – 11, 2025

    The Expedition 73 crew unpacked a newly arrived cargo craft, wrapped up a second week of science with an visiting crew of international astronauts and continued to conduct science and maintenance during their week aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

    Orbital observation

    “As the saying goes, yesterday’s coffee is today’s coffee,” wrote NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, an Expedition 73 flight engineer, on social media.

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  • Polar vortex shifts trigger U.S. extreme cold snaps despite warming: study-Xinhua

    JERUSALEM, July 11 (Xinhua) — An international research group has found that extreme cold snaps in the United States are driven by disruptions in a high-altitude Arctic air mass called the polar vortex, Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Friday in a statement.

    The study, published in Science Advances, reveals that when the vortex stretches over 16 km above Earth, it pushes freezing air into North America. Two distinct patterns were identified: one targets the U.S. Northwest and western Canada, while the other brings icy conditions to central and eastern states, according to the statement.

    These events link to atmospheric wave shifts that bend the jet stream, dragging Arctic air southward. Since 2015, U.S. Northwest cold extremes increased due to a westward-shifting vortex pattern amplified by Pacific climate cycles.

    The study underscores that climate change causes not just warming but also unpredictable severe weather, said the statement, adding that the study helps explain recent deadly freezes in Texas and the Central Plains. ■

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