Category: 7. Science

What’s the story

A new study has revealed that climate change could awaken hundreds of dormant volcanoes around the world. This could further exacerbate the effects of global warming.
The research focuses on changes in the magma under Patagonia’s glaciers and how melting ice can trigger subglacial volcanic activity.
While an immediate eruption threat is not likely, these findings indicate that current rapid glacier melting may increase future eruption risks over centuries or millennia.

Topline

The first full moon of summer in the Northern Hemisphere — the buck moon — rose into the night sky late on Thursday, July 10. Appearing in the southeast just as Mars was setting in the west, Saturn joined it in the night sky shortly after. Here are all the best photos from around the world.

Key Facts

Why The Buck Moon Hung So Low

By definition, a full moon occurs opposite the sun. It, therefore, mirrors the sun’s position in the sky in each hemisphere. Since the sun is currently close to its highest (summer solstice occurred on June 20), the full moon is close to its lowest. As a result, the buck moon never rose far above the horizon, creating excellent conditions for dramatic photos.

Why Full Moons Look So Large

The moon orbits Earth in a slight ellipse, so a full moon can sometimes be slightly closer than usual — a supermoon. However, it’s just a fraction different and barely noticeable. What makes the full moon look so large is the “moon illusion,” which NASA says is a trick of the human brain. The illusion is caused by the moon being seen close to the horizon, where trees and buildings give the human brain context.

The Color Of A Full Moon

The buck moon looked orange as it appeared on the horizon as sunlight reflected off the moon’s surface and was filtered by Earth’s atmosphere. It’s the same phenomenon responsible for red and orange sunsets. When the moon is low in the sky, its light has to travel through the thickest part of Earth’s atmosphere. Along the way, shorter-wavelength blue light is scattered in all directions by air molecules and particles, while the longer-wavelength red and orange light passes through more easily.

The Next Full Moon

This buck moon was the seventh of twelve full moons in 2025. It will be followed by the sturgeon moon, the second full moon of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, on Saturday, August 9.

Further Reading

ForbesPerseids, A Full ‘Buck Moon’ And A Small Sun: The Sky In July 2025By Jamie CarterForbesFull Moon July 2025: When To See The ‘Buck Moon’ Rise Where You AreBy Jamie CarterForbesSecond ‘Nova’ Explodes In Night Sky In Extremely Rare EventBy Jamie Carter

Previous studies indicated that the SPA was formed by a colossal impact approximately 4.25 billion years ago, releasing energy greater than that of a trillion atomic bombs. But the effect of this impact on lunar geology and thermal evolution was one of planetary science’s greatest unsolved questions until recently.

In the past year, research teams led by CAS institutions including the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) and the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC), along with Nanjing University and others, have made four landmark discoveries based on the SPA samples. Their findings were published in four cover articles in the journal Nature.

According to Prof. WU Fuyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at IGG, the profound geological consequences of the impact that formed the SPA are, for the first time, revealed collectively in these four Nature papers.

The cover stories focus on the following areas:

Prolonged Volcanic Activity: Analysis identified two distinct volcanic phases on the lunar farside — 4.2 billion and 2.8 billion years ago — indicating that volcanic activity persisted for at least 1.4 billion years, far longer than previously thought.

Fluctuating Magnetic Field: Measurements of paleomagnetic intensities in basalt clasts revealed a rebound in the Moon’s magnetic field 2.8 billion years ago, suggesting that the lunar dynamo, which generates magnetic fields, fluctuated episodically rather than fading steadily.

Asymmetric Water Distribution: The farside mantle was found to have significantly lower water content than the nearside mantle, indicating that volatile elements are unevenly distributed within the lunar interior — adding another aspect to the Moon’s asymmetry.

Mantle Depletion Signatures: Geochemical analysis of basalt points to an “ultra-depleted” mantle source, likely resulting from either a primordial depleted mantle or massive melt extraction triggered by large impacts. This highlights the role of major impacts in shaping the Moon’s deep interior.

The first analysis of the samples was published by NAOC and its collaborators, detailing the samples’ physical, mineralogical, and geochemical properties. The Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry at CAS subsequently confirmed 2.8-billion-year-old farside volcanic activity, linking it to a highly depleted mantle. IGG, in turn, dated the SPA to 4.25 billion years ago, providing a critical reference point for studying early Solar System impacts.

These findings not only illuminate the evolution of the Moon’s farside but also underscore the transformative impact of the Chang’e-6 mission, paving the way for deeper insights into planetary formation and evolution.

To mark its third year of highly productive science, astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to scratch beyond the surface of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), a massive, local star-forming region.

Webb’s NIRCam instrument was used to look at this particular area of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, which just scratches the surface of the telescope’s three years of groundbreaking science. 

A star formation flex

The progression from a large molecular cloud to massive stars entails multiple steps, some of which are still not well understood by astronomers. Located approximately 4000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, the Cat’s Paw Nebula offers scientists the opportunity to study the turbulent cloud-to-star process in great detail. Webb’s observation of the nebula in near-infrared light builds upon previous studies by the NASA/ESA Hubble and retired NASA Spitzer Space Telescopes in visible and infrared light, respectively.

With its sharp resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen structural details and features: Massive young stars are carving away at nearby gas and dust, while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow represented in blue. It’s a temporary scene where the disruptive young stars, with their relatively short lifespans and luminosity, have a brief but important role in the region’s larger story. As a consequence of these massive stars’ lively behavior, the local star formation process will eventually come to a stop.

The opera house’s intricate structure

Start with the region at top centre, which is nicknamed the ‘Opera House’ for its circular, tiered-like structure. The primary drivers for the area’s cloudy blue glow are most likely toward its bottom: either the light from the bright yellowish stars or from a nearby source still hidden behind the dense, dark brown dust.

Just below the orange-brown tiers of dust is a bright yellow star with diffraction spikes. While this massive star has carved away at its immediate surroundings, it has been unable to push the gas and dust away to greater distances, creating a compact shell of surrounding material.

Look closely to notice small patches, like the tuning fork-shaped area to the Opera House’s immediate left, that contain fewer stars. These seemingly vacant zones indicate the presence of dense foreground filaments of dust that are home to still-forming stars and block the light of stars in the background.

A spotlight on stars

Toward the image’s centre are small, fiery red clumps scattered amongst the brown dust. These glowing red sources mark regions where massive star formation is underway, albeit in an obscured manner.

Some massive blue-white stars, like the one in the lower left region, seem to be more sharply resolved than others. This is because any intervening material between the star and the telescope has been dissipated by stellar radiation.

Near the bottom of this region are small, dense filaments of dust. These tiny clumps of dust have managed to remain despite the intense radiation, suggesting that they are dense enough to form protostars. A small section of yellow at the right notes the location of a still-enshrouded massive star that has managed to shine through intervening material.

Across this entire scene are many small yellow stars with diffraction spikes. Bright blue-white stars are in the foreground of this Webb image, but some may be a part of the more expansive Cat’s Paw Nebula area.

One eye-catching aspect of this Webb image is the bright, red-orange oval at top right. Its low count of background stars implies it is a dense area just beginning its star-formation process. A couple of visible and still-veiled stars are scattered throughout this region, which are contributing to the illumination of the material in the middle. Some still-enveloped stars leave hints of their presence, like a bow shock at the bottom left, which indicates an energetic ejection of gas and dust from a bright source.

Another incredible year of science and images

Webb continued to return on its ambitious science goals over its third year of operations. Unexpected, bright hydrogen emission was found in the galaxy GZ-z13-1, a mere 330 million years after the Big Bang. Showcasing its coronagraph, Webb took direct images of exoplanets in the HR 8799 system which revealed how they likely formed. Then, astronomers discovered a potential new exoplanet in the debris disc around star TWA 7, the first such discovery made with Webb’s coronagraph – but surely not the last. Closer to home, astronomers were able to watch aurorae unfold over a period of just hours on Jupiter.

A remarkable view of a rare Einstein ring, a rich collection of galaxies that acts as a lens on the distant past, a protoplanetary disc sporting powerful stellar winds, and the Sombrero Galaxy seen in an entirely new light were just some of the images released over the past year through which Webb showed us a new view of the cosmos.

In a particular highlight from Webb, the first discovery of young brown dwarf stars outside our galaxy produced a truly breathtaking image of star cluster NGC 602, a vista of its many colours of ionised gas.

KNOXVILLE, TN, July 11, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — A new study reveals that global ocean analysis products can effectively replace expensive in-situ sound speed measurements for precise seafloor positioning. The research demonstrates that using sound speed profiles (SSPs) from the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) global ocean analysis achieves centimeter-level accuracy in seafloor positioning, comparable to traditional methods. This innovation could significantly reduce costs and logistical challenges in marine geodetic surveys, particularly for unmanned vehicles or long-term monitoring.

Accurate seafloor positioning is critical for studying tectonic movements, earthquakes, and marine resource exploration. The Global Navigation Satellite System-Acoustic (GNSS-A) technique combines satellite and acoustic measurements to achieve centimeter-level accuracy. However, GNSS-A traditionally relies on costly measurements of in-situ SSPs, which require extensive time and resources to collect. Variations in ocean temperature, salinity, and pressure further complicate in-situ measurement sampling, which cannot adequately represent the spatial-temporal changes of sound speed, limiting the efficiency of seafloor geodesy. Based on these challenges, there is a pressing need to explore cost-effective alternatives to in-situ SSPs.

Published (DOI: 10.1186/s43020-025-00170-z) on June 30, 2025, in Satellite Navigation, researchers from the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources and Shandong University of Science and Technology evaluated the feasibility of using HYCOM global ocean analysis products for GNSS-A positioning. By comparing global ocean analysis derived SSPs with traditional in-situ and Munk empirical profiles, the study found that global ocean analysis delivers comparable accuracy while slashing operational costs.

The study revealed that global ocean analysis derived SSPs delivered horizontal positioning accuracy of 0.2 cm (RMS) and vertical accuracy of 2.9 cm (RMS), closely matching traditional in-situ measurements while eliminating the need for costly sound speed field surveys. In contrast, the Munk empirical profile introduced significant vertical errors (10.3 cm RMS) due to its oversimplified assumptions, making it unsuitable for high-precision applications. HYCOM global ocean analysis excelled in energetic and eddying marine regions like the Kuroshio Current, with the seafloor displacement linear fitting residual of 2.3 cm horizontally, though slightly higher discrepancies (~3 cm horizontally) occurred in complex dynamic zones like the Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region. Long-term data (8 years) confirmed HYCOM global ocean analysis’s reliability, with displacement trends aligning at sub-mm/year levels horizontally, proving its viability for tectonic monitoring. Notably, the method’s cost-efficiency and compatibility with unmanned vehicles could facilitate access to seafloor geodesy, offering a practical alternative for scientific and industrial use.

Dr. Yanxiong Liu, corresponding author of the study, noted: “Our results confirm that global ocean analysis sound speed profiles are a practical alternative to in-situ measurements. This advancement not only cuts costs but also expands access to seafloor geodetic technology for broader scientific and industrial applications.”

The study’s findings could expand seafloor geodetic monitoring by making GNSS-A positioning more affordable and accessible. Using global ocean analysis sound speed profiles instead of costly in-situ measurements facilitates frequent, high-precision surveys – particularly valuable for earthquake-prone regions like the Japan Trench. Offshore industries could benefit from cheaper seafloor positioning for infrastructure projects, while seismology scientists gain better tools to study seafloor plate tectonics. The approach also holds promise for unmanned vehicle navigation and deep-sea exploration. By eliminating the need for expensive SSPs measurements, this innovation could expand marine geodesy and advance our understanding of seafloor science.

References

DOI

10.1186/s43020-025-00170-z

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1186/s43020-025-00170-z

Funding information

This work is supported by the Science and Technology Innovation Project Funded by Laoshan Laboratory (LSKJ202205102), the Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China (2022S03), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFB0505805), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42004030), and the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2023QD179).

About Satellite Navigation

Satellite Navigation (E-ISSN: 2662-1363; ISSN: 2662-9291) is the official journal of Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The journal aims to report innovative ideas, new results or progress on the theoretical techniques and applications of satellite navigation. The journal welcomes original articles, reviews and commentaries.

Chuanlink Innovations, where revolutionary ideas meet their true potential. Our name, rooted in the essence of transmission and connection, reflects our commitment to fostering innovation and facilitating the journey of ideas from inception to realization.

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“Blue is one of the rarest colors in the animal kingdom, and animals have developed a variety of unique strategies through evolution to produce it, making these processes especially fascinating,” says Dr Viktoriia Kamska, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Mason Dean at City University of Hong Kong.

The team revealed that the secret to the shark’s color lies in the pulp cavities of the tooth-like scales — known as dermal denticles — that armor the shark’s skin. The key features of this color-producing mechanism inside the pulp cavity are guanine crystals, which act as blue reflectors, alongside melanin-containing vesicles called melanosomes, which act as absorbers of other wavelengths. “These components are packed into separate cells, reminiscent of bags filled with mirrors and bags with black absorbers, but kept in close association so they work together,” explains Dr. Kamska. As a result, a pigment (melanin) collaborates with a structured material (guanine platelets of specific thickness and spacing) to enhance color saturation.

“When you combine these materials together, you also create a powerful ability to produce and change color,” says Professor Dean. “What’s fascinating is that we can observe tiny changes in the cells containing the crystals and see and model how they influence the color of the whole organism.”

This anatomical breakthrough was made possible using a mixture of fine-scale dissection, optical microscopy, electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and a suite of other imaging techniques to characterize the form, function, and architectural arrangements of the color-producing nanostructures. “We started looking at color at the organismal level, on the scale of meters and centimeters, but structural color is achieved at the nanometer scale, so we have to use a range of different approaches,” says Professor Dean.

Identifying the likely nanoscale culprits behind the shark’s blue color was only part of the equation. Dr Kamska and her collaborators also used computational simulations to confirm which architectural parameters of these nanostructures are responsible for producing the specific wavelengths of the observed spectral appearance. “It’s challenging to manually manipulate structures at such a small scale, so these simulations are incredibly useful for understanding what color palette is available,” says Dr Kamska.

The discovery also reveals that the shark’s trademark color is potentially mutable through tiny changes in the relative distances between layers of guanine crystals within the denticle pulp cavities. Whereas narrower spaces between layers create the iconic blues, increasing this space shifts the color into greens and golds.

Dr Kamska and her team have demonstrated that this structural mechanism of color change could be driven by environmental factors that affect guanine platelet spacing. “In this way, very fine scale alterations resulting from something as simple as humidity or water pressure changes could alter body color, that then shape how the animal camouflages or counter-shades in its natural environment,” says Professor Dean.

For example, the deeper a shark swims, the more pressure that their skin is subjected to, and the tighter the guanine crystals would likely be pushed together — which should darken the shark’s color to better suit its surroundings. “The next step is to see how this mechanism really functions in sharks living in their natural environment,” says Dr Kamska.

While this research provides important new insights into shark anatomy and evolution, it also has a strong potential for bio-inspired engineering applications. “Not only do these denticles provide sharks with hydrodynamic and antifouling benefits, but we’ve now found that they also have a role in producing and maybe changing color too,” says Professor Dean. “Such a multi-functional structural design — a marine surface combining features for high-speed hydrodynamics and camouflaging optics — as far as we know, hasn’t been seen before.”

Therefore, this discovery could have implications for improving environmental sustainability within the manufacturing industry. “A major benefit of structural coloration over chemical coloration is that it reduces the toxicity of materials and reduces environmental pollution,” says Dr Kamska. “Structural color is a tool that could help a lot, especially in marine environments, where dynamic blue camouflage would be useful.”

“As nanofabrication tools get better, this creates a playground to study how structures lead to new functions,” says Professor Dean. “We know a lot about how other fishes make colors, but sharks and rays diverged from bony fishes hundreds of millions of years ago – so this represents a completely different evolutionary path for making color.”

This research, funded by Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, General Research Fund, is being presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium on July 9^th, 2025.

Founded by Ariel Ekblaw (SM ’17, PhD ’20), Danielle DeLatte ’11, and former MIT research scientist Sana Sharma, Aurelia builds on the work initiated through MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative.

Its portfolio includes technology prototyping, microgravity experimentation, and policy engagement designed to broaden participation in space-related fields.

Microgravity missions double as workforce training

Each year, Aurelia charters a microgravity flight carrying around 25 participants. The missions combine scientific research with early-career exposure to real spaceflight conditions. To date, nearly 200 individuals, ranging from artists to teachers, have participated in flights through either Aurelia or its MIT predecessor. More than 70 percent of them have remained active in the space sector.

“We’ve done that every year,” says Ekblaw. “We now have multiple cohorts of students that connect across years. It brings together people from very different backgrounds. We’ve had artists, designers, architects, ethicists, teachers, and others fly with us.”

Aurelia also delivers open-source education for designing microgravity experiments and contributes to outreach programs that intersect with academia, industry, and the arts.

TESSERAE technology tested aboard the ISS

A core part of Aurelia’s research includes TESSERAE (Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments), a self-assembling modular architecture system for use in orbit. The project began during Ekblaw’s graduate studies and has since been tested in microgravity flights, a suborbital launch with Blue Origin, and on the International Space Station (ISS).

In 2022, TESSERAE was included on the first private mission to the ISS, where astronauts evaluated its autonomous assembly and disassembly under space conditions. A follow-up test is scheduled for early 2026, supported by a NASA grant.

Aurelia recently spun off the TESSERAE project into a separate company, with plans for future spinoffs as research matures.

Designing habitats for space and Earth

Aurelia’s research portfolio also includes human-scale space architecture projects. These include a space garden, a 20-foot geodesic dome depicting future orbital habitats, and other deployable structures aimed at supporting life in orbit.

“The architectural work is asking, ‘How are we going to outfit these systems and actually make the habitats part of a life worth living?’” says Ekblaw.

One recent installation, a pavilion designed to reflect future space environments, was featured in a six-month exhibition at the Seattle Museum of Flight.

The team frames space as a proving ground for robust technologies that may also serve communities on Earth. “When you design something for the rigors of space, you often hit on really robust technologies for Earth,” Ekblaw says.

There was a total solar eclipse in the UK back in 1999. I travelled down to Cornwall, a loooooong 8 hour car drive and quite typically for UK, it was cloud. For me, I either need to wait until 2090 when I will be the ripe old age of 117 or travel abroad. Even if I had seen it, I would have been able to enjoy the spectacle for just over 2 minutes! Imagine though, experiencing a total solar eclipse that lasts 48 minutes instead of the usual four minutes or so that we see on Earth. A UK led space mission plans to make this possible by creating artificial solar eclipses in space, revolutionising how we study our nearest star and potentially saving decades of waiting for natural eclipses.

The Moon Enabled Sun Occultation Mission (MESOM) proposes placing a small satellite in a carefully calculated orbit that aligns it with the Moon’s shadow approximately once every 29.6 days. This ingenious approach would allow scientists to study the Sun’s corona, its outermost atmosphere, in unprecedented detail, capturing the equivalent of 80 Earth based eclipses over just two years.

Total Solar Eclipse showing the stunning outer atmosphere of the Sun known as the corona. (Credit : Luc Viatour)

The corona holds many of the Sun’s deepest mysteries. This wispy, ethereal layer is only visible during total solar eclipses when the Moon blocks the Sun’s brilliant disk, revealing the shimmering plasma that extends millions of kilometers into space. On Earth, total eclipses are rare treats that last mere minutes and occur only along narrow paths. Those wanting to study or just enjoy the event often travel thousands of miles and wait years between opportunities.

Understanding the corona is crucial for space weather prediction. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections, massive bursts of plasma and magnetic field, originate in this region and can disrupt satellites, power systems, and communication systems on Earth. They can also affect everything from GPS navigation to airline routes over polar regions.

MESOM would eliminate the solar eclipse waiting game or the reliance on large expensive equipment entirely. By positioning itself in the Moon’s shadow, the satellite would experience artificial eclipses lasting up to 48 minutes, ten times longer than typical Earth based observations. These extended viewing periods would allow for detailed measurements impossible from our planet’s surface.

“MESOM capitalises on the chaotic dynamics of the Sun-Earth-Moon system to reproduce total solar eclipse conditions in space while using the Moon as a natural occulter. The satellite would naturally pass through the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow during every two of its revolutions.” – Dr. Nicola Baresi from the Surrey Space Centre.

MESOM would carry a sophisticated suite of instruments including a high resolution coronal imager led by the US Naval Research Laboratory, a corona mass spectrometer from Aberystwyth University and University College London to analyse plasma composition, and a Spanish built spectropolarimeter to study the Sun’s magnetic field and phenomena like sunspots and solar flares.

Solar flare captured from Skylab. (Credit : NASA)

The research team, spanning the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL, Aberystwyth University, and the Surrey Space Centre, expects ESA’s response about their proposal later this year. If approved, MESOM could operate for two years, providing an unprecedented opportunity for longer term study of the Sun’s corona.

This innovative approach demonsstrates how creative orbital mechanics can solve longstanding scientific challenges. Rather than building massive, expensive instruments or waiting for rare natural events, MESOM uses the Moon as a free, perfectly sized disk to block the Sun’s light exactly when and where scientists need it.

If successful, MESOM will transform solar science from a field often waiting for events to happen, dependent on rare eclipses to a systematic study capable of monitoring our star’s behaviour almost continuously, helping protect our increasingly technology dependent civilisation from the Sun’s more violent outbursts.

Source : A Small Satellite Could See a Perfect Solar Eclipse Every Month