Category: 7. Science

At an exhibition in the heart of China’s capital, Beijing, cosmic data becomes tangible art.

Navigating through 10 billion light years with the slide of a finger, confronting the dense, tangled web of space debris now circling the Earth, and listening to music made from data collected by satellites orbiting in space, are all options at the exhibition Cosmos Archaeology: Explorations in Time and Space, which opened to the public on July 3 in the National Museum of China. Here, visitors can discover and explore new gateways to the universe.

Jointly hosted by the museum, the Embassy of Switzerland in China, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, or EPFL, the exhibition is one of a series of events to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Switzerland.

The show, which will run for three months, features many pieces created from real observational data and transforms abstract cosmic phenomena into immersive encounters.

“Ordinary people often feel distant from the vast datasets of fundamental science,” says the exhibition’s cocurator Long Xingru.

“Art is an excellent vehicle for telling scientific stories. It enriches our expression of science,” Long adds.

Her vision materializes through installations in the exhibition.

An installation, developed by EPFL’s labs to present the dynamic cosmos, employs a custom graphics rendering engine to construct an interactive 3D universe model — allowing visitors to traverse cosmic scales spanning 27 orders of magnitude.

Another exhibit nearby, which is an interactive astrophysical visualization system, projects approximately 500 NASA deep-space images onto a domed environment. Optical enhancement modules then transform telescope data into shimmering nebulae and spiraling, colliding galaxies.

Notably, this exhibition connects millennia of cosmic inquiry. A prized artifact from the host museum’s own collection, a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) stele rubbing, reveals early Chinese astronomical mastery.

Its star map documents 1,434 precisely charted stars, along with the Milky Way boundary, ecliptic path and 28 lunar constellations — exceeding the systematic accuracy of contemporaneous European charts.

Modern astronomers confirm that its stellar positions align remarkably well with contemporary catalogs.

Yet, alongside historical wonder lie stark warnings about the future.

With an increasing number of satellites and spacecraft being launched, space debris continues to accumulate. An EPFL lab has managed to create an interactive data visualization device that dynamically presents tens of thousands of satellites and pieces of space debris.

Visually, it suggests that the Earth is now ensnared by numerous webs made up of a dense layer of space junk.

“This is forcing us to rethink how we will explore and manage space resources in the future,” says Gao Lu, a curator and associate researcher at the National Museum of China.

Beyond visualizing the distant cosmos, the exhibition also probes humanity’s place within it.

The exhibition features a series of works designed by faculty members and students from Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts and Design, a coorganizer of the exhibition, envisioning future planetary journeys.

“Science and art part ways at the mountain’s base but reunite at its summit,” says Shi Danqing, an associate professor at the academy.

“We need students equipped with both scientific thinking and experimental design creativity — merging technology with exploration. This ability will become crucial in the AI era,” he says.

NASA has selected three instruments to travel to the Moon, with two planned for integration onto an LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) and one for a future orbital opportunity.

The LTV is part of NASA’s efforts to explore the lunar surface as part of the Artemis campaign and is the first crew-driven vehicle to operate on the Moon in more than 50 years. Designed to hold up to two astronauts, as well as operate remotely without a crew, this surface vehicle will enable NASA to achieve more of its science and exploration goals over a wide swath of lunar terrain.

“The Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle will transport humanity farther than ever before across the lunar frontier on an epic journey of scientific exploration and discovery,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By combining the best of human and robotic exploration, the science instruments selected for the LTV will make discoveries that inform us about Earth’s nearest neighbor as well as benefit the health and safety of our astronauts and spacecraft on the Moon.”

The Artemis Infrared Reflectance and Emission Spectrometer (AIRES) will identify, quantify, and map lunar minerals and volatiles, which are materials that evaporate easily, like water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide. The instrument will capture spectral data overlaid on visible light images of both specific features of interest and broad panoramas to discover the distribution of minerals and volatiles across the Moon’s south polar region. The AIRES instrument team is led by Phil Christensen from Arizona State University in Tempe.

The Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS) will help define what is below the Moon’s surface and search for possible locations of ice. Containing both a spectrometer and a ground-penetrating radar, the instrument suite will measure temperature, density, and subsurface structures to more than 131 feet (40 meters) below the surface. The L-MAPS instrument team is led by Matthew Siegler from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

When combined, the data from the two instruments will paint a picture of the components of the lunar surface and subsurface to support human exploration and will uncover clues to the history of rocky worlds in our solar system. The instruments also will help scientists characterize the Moon’s resources, including what the Moon is made of, potential locations of ice, and how the Moon changes over time.

In addition to the instruments selected for integration onto the LTV, NASA also selected the Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon (UCIS-Moon) for a future orbital flight opportunity. The instrument will provide regional context to the discoveries made from the LTV. From above, UCIS-Moon will map the Moon’s geology and volatiles and measure how human activity affects those volatiles. The spectrometer also will help identify scientifically valuable areas for astronauts to collect lunar samples, while its wide-view images provide the overall context for where these samples will be collected. The UCIS-Moon instrument will provide the Moon’s highest spatial resolution data of surface lunar water, mineral makeup, and thermophysical properties. The UCIS-Moon instrument team is led by Abigail Fraeman from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

“Together, these three scientific instruments will make significant progress in answering key questions about what minerals and volatiles are present on and under the surface of the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “With these instruments riding on the LTV and in orbit, we will be able to characterize the surface not only where astronauts explore, but also across the south polar region of the Moon, offering exciting opportunities for scientific discovery and exploration for years to come.”

Leading up to these instrument selections, NASA has worked with all three lunar terrain vehicle vendors – Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab – to complete their preliminary design reviews. This review demonstrates that the initial design of each commercial lunar rover meets all of NASA’s system requirements and shows that the correct design options have been selected, interfaces have been identified, and verification methods have been described. NASA will evaluate the task order proposals received from each LTV vendor and make a selection decision on the demonstration mission by the end of 2025. 

Through Artemis, NASA will address high priority science questions, focusing on those that are best accomplished by on-site human explorers on and around the Moon by using robotic surface and orbiting systems. The Artemis missions will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

To learn more about Artemis, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

-end-

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is celebrating three years of transformational science with a striking new image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula — a vast nursery of stars located about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.

Released Thursday (July 10), the JWST’s new image offers a dazzling close-up of a section of the nebula known for its distinctive, pawprint-like appearance thanks to large, circular structures that resemble a feline’s “toe beans,” the soft pads on the bottom of cats’ paws.

Protoplanetary disks made of gas and dust form around young stars, and this is where planets from. These disks don’t last forever. Eventually, the star’s energetic output dissipates the disk through photoevaporation, the material gets taken up in planets, and the planet-forming process ceases.

All young stars are expected to have protoplanetary disks, and these dusty environments make it difficult to see young planets forming. Astronomers recently observed a binary star with separate disks. The primary star has cleared out its dusty protoplanetary disk, while its companion hasn’t. Now that the primary star has cleared away the obscuring dust, it’s an excellent target for direct imaging of planets.

The research is titled “Direct imaging discovery of a young giant planet orbiting on Solar System scales,” and it’s published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The lead author is Tomas Stolker. He’s an assistant professor of astronomer at the Leiden Observatory at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

The double star system is called HD 135344 AB and it’s about 440 light-years away from Earth. A and B are both young stars, and they orbit each other widely, indicating that their protoplanetary disks evolved separately. The primary star is an A-type main-sequence star, and the secondary star is an F-type main-sequence star.

The critical aspect of this binary system is that the primary star has cleared away its protoplanetary disk, while the secondary star hasn’t. The secondary star has been studied for decades, largely because it’s still forming planets. Observations revealed a central cavity in the disk, spiral arms, and variable shadowing, all features that suggest planet-disk interactions, even though any actual planets are shielded from observations by thick dust.

The primary star, on the other hand, appears to have no disk, and hasn’t attracted much attention. However, that lack of dust makes it a prominent location to search for exoplanets. In the new research, the team used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and its SPHERE exoplanet instrument to directly image a planet orbiting the primary star, HD 135344 A. It took four years of dedicated observations with powerful instruments to detect it.

“Star A had never been investigated because it does not contain a disk. My colleagues and I were curious about whether it had already formed a planet,” said Stolker in a press release. “And so, after four years of careful measurements and some luck, the answer is yes.”

This figure shows detections of HD 135344 Ab with the VLT and its SPHERE instrument. Four of the images are from it IRDIS (Infra-Red Dual Imaging and Spectrograph) instrument, and two are from its IFS (Integral Field Spectrograph) instrument. The planet is seen in westward direction (i.e., toward the right). The color scale is linear and normalized to the brightest pixel in each image. Image Credit: VLT/SPHERE; Stolker et al. 2025. A&A

HD 135344 Ab is a young planet with about 10 Jupiter masses. It orbits at 15-20 astronomical units from its star, and its spectral type is mid-L, meaning it bridges the gap between a brown dwarf or a gas giant. It’s no more than 12 million years old, making it one of the youngest directly-imaged planets.

The fact the primary star has ceased forming planets while the secondary star is still forming planets shows that binary stars can have different planet-formation and protoplanetary disk lifetimes.

When they first detected the planet, it was unclear if it was a planet or a star. But the VLT is a powerful and flexible telescope. It’s made of four separate yet identical scopes that can be used as an interferometer, and four smaller auxiliary scopes that can be positioned independently. This allowed the VLT and SPHERE to map the planet’s location with extreme accuracy. Over time, they saw the star and the suspected planet move together, confirming that it’s a planet.

This figure from the research shows how the astronomers determined that the new planet was not another star. It shows that the planet moves mostly eastward, whereas the background sources move northeast. The crosses show the positions of HD 135344 Ab, which moves eastward. The colored circles show the positions of the suspected background sources in the IRDIS field of view, which are connected with dotted lines between epochs. The dashed line shows the track for a stationary background source. Image Credit: Stolker et al. 2025. A&A

“We’ve been lucky, though,” says Stolker. “The angle between the planet and the star is now so small that SPHERE can barely detect the planet.”

Observing and imaging exoplanets is an extremely difficult tasks. Most exoplanet discoveries are inferred from observational data and presented with artist’s illustrations which are interpretations of the data. Though the images of HD 135344 Ab don’t show any planetary detail, they are direct images rather than representations.

The researchers say that the planet likely formed near its solar system’s snow line. Scientists think that this is a key region for giant planet formation. Different materials are available there because volatiles like water, ammonia, and methane are solids there rather than gases. The collective boost to available solid surfaces means it’s easier for dust grains to stick together and eventually grow into planets.

It was challenging to determine that the planet was not a background star, something that hinders the direct imaging of exoplanets. Gaia astrometric data plays a big role in this. “This study also highlights the importance of high-precision astrometric measurements to fully disentangle orbital from background motion in a region of non-stationary background stars,” the authors explain.

But it also took some lucky timing. “A good portion of luck was involved with the discovery of HD 135344 Ab, however, because we caught the planet at a favorable separation along its inclined orbit,” the authors write in their conclusion. “In the next 10 to 20 years, the angular separation with its star will decrease to ≈10–35 mas, which means that the planet would not have been discovered with SPHERE for a large fraction of its orbit.”

Direct imaging surveys show that giant planets like this one are rare at wider separations of 20 au or greater. The detection of these planets at shorter separations is expected to increase when the ESA’s Gaia astrometric mission releases its fourth dataset in 2026. That data will guide the quest to directly image more exoplanets. “Gaia DR4 may reveal hints of similar close-in giant planets in star-forming regions, which will guide direct imaging searches and post-processing algorithms,” the researchers explain.

“HD 135344 Ab might be part of a population of giant planets that could have formed in the vicinity of the snowline,” the authors write. ‘These objects have remained challenging to detect since most surveys and observing strategies have not been optimized for such small separations.”

If there is a population of young giant planets like this one, exoplanet scientists would love to find them. They could learn a great deal about giant planet formation from them. When they do detect them, the next step is to study them in greater detail. The upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, set to see first light in 2029, will have the power to do this. This will reveal more about these planets, their compositions, and how they form.

Earth started out as a ball of liquid fire, its newborn surface closer to a lava lamp than the calm continents we know today. Those incandescent beginnings happened 4.5 billion years ago, yet the evidence is buried miles beneath our feet where direct sampling is impossible.

A new computer model of the infant planet’s mantle says the rock we stand on still remembers that fiery youth, right down to the chemical fingerprints laid down within the planet’s first hundred million years.

Assistant Professor Charles‑Édouard Boukaré, Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, led the new study.

Early Earth was a molten world

When the young Earth cooled, it did not freeze evenly like a lake in winter. It simmered from the top down and the bottom up at the same time, leaving pockets of melt trapped deep inside.

Planetary scientists call that global melt a basal magma ocean, a deep layer of iron‑rich liquid pooling just above the metal core, and its existence explains why the modern core still loses heat so slowly.

Seismic scans of the modern deep mantle reveal sprawling ultralow velocity zones that slow earthquake waves, hinting they contain that same dense, iron‑heavy melt and supporting the basal ocean concept.

These reservoirs sit beneath the Pacific and Africa today, covering areas wider than the continental United States, yet they are hard to image because they lie nearly eighteen hundred miles down.

Exactly when those structures formed has been uncertain because many earlier simulations treated the mantle as a single gooey fluid, erasing the complex dance between liquid and crystal that governs segregation.

Modeling magma to solid rock

The code named Bambari by the researchers divided Earth’s interior into a fine grid and began with a half‑melted mantle, about fifty percent liquid, a state thought to be realistic after the giant impact that created the Moon.

Temperature contrasts made lighter crystal mush rise while heavier, iron‑loaded droplets sank, all as heat bled into cold space, and the model resolved motions at scales from global overturns to turbulent eddies only a few miles across.

Within a few thousand simulated years the top hundred miles had cooled enough for crystals to lock together, forming down‑plunging sheets that ferried a shallow chemical signal into the deep, a result that surprised the research team.

More crystals formed near the surface than near the core, overturning the textbook view that solidification begins at depth, and the outcome hints that early Earth might have sported a short‑lived rocky crust that repeatedly sank back into the mantle.

Because the falling crystals reheated and partly melted on the way down, they left behind an iron‑rich brew that eventually puddled into an ocean of liquid rock roughly three hundred miles thick above the core, one that may have persisted for half a billion years and acted as a blanket trapping core heat.

Surprising chemistry on early Earth

Low‑pressure minerals such as olivine were expected to dominate only the upper mantle, yet Boukaré’s run shows their fingerprints nearly twelve‑hundred miles below.

This finding that forces a rethink of how trace elements were sorted. The reason is mechanical: surface‑grown crystals fell like hailstones, skipping equilibrium reactions at depth.

As they sank, mass balance pumped iron‑rich melt upward where it chilled, creating downwellings enriched in trace elements such as samarium and neodymium, and the pattern repeated until the mantle became mostly solid.

That process stamped unusual Lu/Hf and Sm/Nd ratios that still appear in 3.8 billion‑year‑old rocks from Greenland, offering a rare chemical time capsule of early differentiation.

“This study is the first to demonstrate that the first‑order features of Earth’s lower mantle structure were established four billion years ago,” said Boukaré.

Remnants in Earth’s mantle today

The simulation naturally birthed the two giant “superplumes,” formally known as large low shear‑velocity provinces or LLSVPs, that sit under the Pacific and Africa and rise more than six‑hundred miles off the core.

In the model they form as the dregs of the magma ocean, loaded with iron and slightly radioactive elements that keep them hotter than their surroundings, an explanation that unifies decades of seismic and geochemical hints.

That extra heat helps feed volcanic hotspots such as Hawaii and Iceland, linking events separated by billions of years through persistent mantle circulation.

High‑precision noble‑gas measurements in ocean‑island basalts point to ancient, undegassed mantle domains that match the predicted reservoirs, giving independent support to the model’s deep‑time narrative.

Because the model reproduces both seismic and chemical observations, it knits together disciplines that rarely intersect and offers a single story for the planet’s deep past.

What this means for other planets

The equations behind Bambari apply to any rocky world, big or small, making the tool valuable far beyond Earth studies.

For Mars, whose lower mass bleeds heat faster, the basal magma ocean would have frozen early, starving the core of insulation and hastening the loss of its magnetic shield within a few hundred million years, a scenario that dovetails with rover data showing weak residual magnetism in surface rocks.

For a super‑Earth twice our planet’s size, the same physics predicts a magma ocean that could linger a billion years, sustaining a long‑lived dynamo and perhaps protecting an atmosphere long enough for life to emerge.

“If we know some kind of starting conditions, and we know the main processes of planetary evolution, we can predict how planets will evolve,” Boukaré explained. That prospect gives exoplanet hunters a fresh tool for judging habitability without leaving the telescope.

The study is published in Nature.

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The Martian meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 16254 is a 406-g gabbroic shergottite found two years ago in Algeria.

“Martian meteorites represent the only direct samples available in laboratory for studying the composition and evolution of the Martian mantle, as most are igneous in origin and retain geochemical fingerprints of mantle processes,” said lead author Dr. Jun-Feng Chen and colleagues at the Chengdu University of Technology.

“Among these available samples, shergottites, comprising approximately 90% of the Martian meteorite collection, are particularly critical for deciphering mantle dynamics, crust-mantle interactions, and magmatic differentiation on Mars.”

“Shergottites are classified into four petrological subtypes depending on their distinct textural and mineralogical characteristics: including basaltic, olivine-phyric, poikilitic, and gabbroic.”

“These variations reflect distinct formation environments, ranging from shallow subsurface crystallization to potential surface eruptions, with gabbroic shergottites notably preserving coarse-grained textures indicative of slow cooling in crustal magma chambers.”

In the new study, the authors combined advanced mineralogical mapping and geochemical analyses to decode the history of NWA 16254.

They revealed decoupled geochemical behaviors in pyroxene cores and rims, a phenomenon critical for reconstructing magma chamber dynamics.

“Our study reveals that NWA 16254 formed initially under high-pressure conditions (4.3-9.3 kbar) at the Martian mantle-crust boundary, where magnesium-rich pyroxene cores crystallized,” the researchers said.

“Later, the magma ascended to shallow crustal depths (<4 kbar), where iron-enriched pyroxene rims and plagioclase developed.”

“This prolonged cooling process, preserved in the meteorite’s coarse-grained texture, suggests episodic melt extraction from a long-lived, depleted mantle reservoir — a critical clue for reconstructing Mars’ magmatic evolution.”

“The meteorite’s geochemical depletion, marked by light rare earth element depleted and low oxygen fugacity, aligns it with a meteorite called QUE 94201, hinting at a shared magma source.”

“Its gabbroic texture, indicative of slow cooling in crustal chambers, distinguishes it as a unique archive of subsurface magmatism.”

“These findings challenge existing models of Martian volcanic evolution, as NWA 16254’s consistently low oxygen fugacity, corroborated by Ti³⁺-bearing ilmenite assemblages, implies sustained reducing conditions during crystallization.”

“This underscores the heterogeneity of Mars’ mantle and raises questions about the planet’s redox evolution over billions of years.”

“Future geochronological studies could resolve whether this meteorite represents ancient mantle melting (2.4 billion years ago) or younger magmatic activity, offering clues to Mars’ thermal history.”

The team’s paper was published May 13, 2025 in the journal Planet.

_____

Jun-Feng Chen et al. Petrography and geochemistry of a newly discovered Martian gabbroic shergottite NWA 16254. Planet, published online May 13, 2025; doi: 10.15302/planet.2025.25002

If you live in the central or eastern United States, you might see more snakes after multiple rounds of severe storms and flooding.

The snakes won’t be drawn out by weather. The flooding forces them to leave their dens or shelters in search of higher, drier ground. Sometimes that means slithering up to − or even inside − homes, according to experts at NC State University.

Rainy weather can also encourage snakes to venture out because prey such as frogs, toads and other amphibians tend to be more active. Almost every state has a variety of snake species, both poisonous and nonvenomous. Only three states do not have venomous snakes: Alaska, Maine and Rhode Island.

The majority of snakebites are recorded from April to October, when snakes and humans alike are most active outdoors and likely to cross each other’s paths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year.

Here are precautions you should take and the most common venomous snakes people may encounter.

Take snake precautions during and after heavy rainfall

Because flood-damaged structures have multiple accessible exits, they are more likely to attract snakes. Snakes that have been displaced may be discovered in heaps of debris during cleanup or beneath material left behind, according to the University of Missouri.

• When working in areas with thick grass or clearing debris, pay extra attention to where you step and where you place your hands.
• When in areas with a lot of debris and a high probability of snake sightings, wear snake leggings or boots that are at least 10 inches high.
• If a snake is in your path, move aside and let it continue on its way. Since snakes typically travel slowly, people can easily avoid their path.

How to identify a copperhead snake

Copperheads have muscular, thick bodies with ridged scales. Their pupils are vertical, similar to a cat’s eyes, and their irises are usually reddish-brown or orange. They prefer rocky mountains, wooded areas and a habitat with both sunlight and cover. They’re not as venomous as cottonmouths.

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them. 

Copperhead snake size

More: Texas flood deaths rise to 120; search for 170 missing in seventh day: Live updates

How to identify a cottonmouth snake

Cottonmouths (also known as water moccasins) are venomous and are almost always found near water, basking in the sun on rocks, branches or along the water’s edge. They have a distinctive thick broad head with camouflaged eyes. When their heads are viewed from above, their eyes cannot be seen. Younger cottonmouths are usually lighter in color and darken as they age.

Cottonmouth snake size

More: These Texas ‘flash flood alley’ towns have suffered most in horrific flooding

How to identify a rattlesnake

The habitat range of rattlesnakes reaches across the majority of the United States, primarily in the desert, mountains, prairies and along coastlines. A rattle at the end of the snake’s tail makes a buzzing sound when the reptile feels threatened, though they don’t always rattle before biting.

According to the Mayo Clinic, snakebites from venomous snakes, including the rattlesnake, come with various symptoms: “There is severe burning pain at the site within 15 to 30 minutes. This can progress to swelling and bruising at the wound and all the way up the arm or leg. Other signs and symptoms include nausea, labored breathing and a general sense of weakness, as well as an odd taste in the mouth.”

Rattlesnake size

More: Flooding in New Mexico kills at least 3 people, including 2 children

How to identify a coral snake

Coral snakes are secretive and prefer to spend most of their lives hidden underground or in leaf piles. Their distinctive bright colors of red, yellow and black are easily confused with the nonvenomous milk snake and the scarlet kingsnake, which has red, black, yellow or white banding. Remember the old saying: Red and yellow, kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack.

• Bites are rare: The most recent documented death from a coral snake in the USA was in 2009, the first in 40 years.

Coral snake size

How to recognize a snake bite

People should treat any snakebite as if it were venomous and seek appropriate medical attention. How to identify a snakebite pattern:

What you should do if you are bitten by a snake

Call 911 or your poison control office to get help right away. If it is safe to do so, taking a photo of the snake can make it easier for medical professionals to figure out what kind of treatment you might need.

SOURCE Pennsylvania State University; NC State University, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute; University of Florida; Live Science; National Wildlife Federation and USA TODAY research

CONTRIBUTING Brandi D. Addison/USA TODAY NETWORK

On Thursday (July 10), the U.S. Senate appropriations committee voted on a bill that provides NASA’s science programs with $7.3 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The bill would reject the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the agency, which slashes such funding by 47%.

The bipartisan Senate bill — worked on by Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) — initially won by a vote of 15-14. However, primarily due to contention surrounding the location of the FBI headquarters, the bill was ultimately withdrawn and another vote will be conducted during a future meeting.