Category: 7. Science

  • Ladakh’s hot springs could help trace origins of life on Earth, Mars

    Ladakh’s hot springs could help trace origins of life on Earth, Mars

    Hot springs in the icy, high-altitude expanses of Ladakh could be holding secrets from the very dawn of life on Earth and may even help in tracing the possible origins of life on Mars, besides providing valuable insights for India’s space exploration programmes.

    A team of Indian scientists has made a breakthrough discovery that could not only rewrite our understanding of how life may have originated on Earth but also shed light on how astro-biological processes related to finding bio-signatures of life on other planetary bodies may have occurred.


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  • INSANE simulation shows fleet of NASA choppers dropping down on Mars

    INSANE simulation shows fleet of NASA choppers dropping down on Mars

    Human landing on Mars might become a reality in the coming years. In preparation for that day, NASA and other space agencies have sent several missions to the Red Planet. One of them was the Perseverance rover that carried the Ingenuity helicopter with it in 2021. It became the first chopper to land and take off from the Martian surface. Now, a defence contractor has released a new design concept to succeed the iconic Mars chopper. The plan is to have multiple choppers land on different spots on Mars at the same time. Virginia-based AeroVironment (AV) has partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the Mars chopper plan. Called the Skyfall mission concept, the helicopters will help further plans of landing humans on Mars one day. The Mars helicopters will scout the landscape for the best places for people. Also Read: Unexplainable radio signal defying laws of universe has no clear source. ‘It is a unicorn’

    Six choppers will be released from one capsule on Mars

    As part of the mission, one capsule will be used to release six helicopters. Once out, each helicopter will land independently on the Martian surface. According to AV, the aim is to launch these choppers in 2028. The Skyfall mission will have six choppers being dropped by the landing carrier without actually having to land anywhere. So there would be no need to have a landing platform on the surface. Once released, each helicopter will choose its own location to land independently. Upon touchdown, they will get to work immediately, exploring different parts of the Martian surface. One of their jobs would be to look for the best locations that are most suited for future human missions. Also Read: Expert says interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is alien spacecraft: 3 reasons why he thinks so

    Choppers will click photos and scan under Martian surface

    Each chopper will collect high-resolution images of the surface. They would also deploy radar to look under the surface, to search for potential resources on Mars. “With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct–making humanity’s first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer,” William Pomerantz, head of Space Ventures at AV, said in a statement. Also Read: NO KIDDING! Scientists want to use PAPER PLANE spacecraft for space missions because…

    Ingenuity chopper undertook several trips on Mars after being released in 2021. The 19-inch-tall and 1.8-kilogram helicopter also lifted off independently later, becoming the first powered aircraft to lift off from the surface of another planet. It was originally meant to take five test flights, but it stopped only after a whopping 72 flights. Fourteen of those trips had it travel farther than planned for a total flight time of two hours. Last year, Ingenuity took its last flight when it broke its blades while landing.

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  • A Sunken Port Beneath the Red Sea May Have Reshaped the Map of Human Migration Out of Africa 20,000 Years Ago

    A Sunken Port Beneath the Red Sea May Have Reshaped the Map of Human Migration Out of Africa 20,000 Years Ago

    New research suggests an ancient trade hub lies beneath Egypt’s Red Sea coast—offering clues to how early civilizations connected Africa to the wider world and influenced patterns of human migration.

    What if one of humanity’s earliest international ports is hidden beneath the Red Sea?

    In a discovery that could dramatically reshape our understanding of ancient trade, migration, and civilization, researchers have identified a region along Egypt’s Foul Bay that may have hosted a thriving coastal city—now submerged under the sea. Named Berenice Aquaterra by scientists, this lost port may have once connected Africa to the Mediterranean, serving as a critical crossroads for early human movement and commerce.

    The finding comes from a study led by Jerome Dobson, professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, and Italian collaborators Giorgio Spada and Gaia Galassi. Published in Comptes Rendus Géoscience, their research uses cutting-edge glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models to simulate ancient coastlines from 30,000 years ago to the present. These reconstructions, combined with DNA and archaeological data, suggest vast areas of land now underwater once hosted early human settlements.

    “We’re not just looking at abstract coastlines,” Dobson said. “We’re potentially looking at the remains of a city that helped move goods, people, and culture between continents.”

    A City Lost to Rising Seas?

    During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) roughly 21,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 125 meters lower than today, exposing large areas along the Red Sea. Foul Bay, now an inlet on Egypt’s eastern coast, was a dry and potentially strategic location—offering a shorter and safer overland route to the Nile River than the longer Suez corridor. Dobson and his team propose that this area could have developed into a port city to facilitate trade between inland Africa and seaborne routes.

    What makes this hypothesis more than just theory is the unusual pattern of coral reefs in Foul Bay—over 300 patch coral formations, many growing on what may be ancient stone foundations. “Coral reefs require hard substrates. If these reefs are sitting on masonry or human-built structures, we could be looking at a submerged archaeological site of global importance,” Dobson noted.

    Reference map showing natural features cited, cities and known routes connecting the Nile River, Foul Bay, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea throughout history.
Credit: Dobson et al.
    Reference map showing natural features cited, cities and known routes connecting the Nile River, Foul Bay, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea throughout history.
    Credit: Dobson et al.

    Rewriting the Map of Ancient Trade

    The potential existence of Berenice Aquaterra challenges traditional views of how early civilizations moved across and beyond Africa. Instead of relying solely on the narrow Suez land bridge, ancient people might have utilized this southern route when sea levels made it viable—connecting to the Nile and eventually reaching the Mediterranean.

    “If proven, this would place Foul Bay as one of the earliest known hubs of human trade,” Dobson said. “It’s like discovering a missing piece of the ancient world’s infrastructure.”

    The area’s historical counterpart, Berenice Troglodytica, became a major Greco-Roman port 2,000 years ago. But this new research suggests that Foul Bay’s significance predates that by thousands of years.

    Underwater Archaeology’s Next Frontier

    Despite centuries of archaeological interest in ancient Egypt, much of the region’s submerged coastline remains unexplored. The researchers are calling for underwater surveys to investigate the coral-covered seabed of Foul Bay.

    “Just because something hasn’t been found doesn’t mean it never existed,” Dobson noted, referencing how the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria remained hidden for centuries—only to be rediscovered underwater near its original location.

    The open-access GIA datasets provided by the team make it easier for researchers across disciplines to pursue their own investigations into humanity’s submerged past.

    “This isn’t just about one city,” Dobson emphasized. “It’s about recognizing that massive portions of human history might be lying just beneath the waves, waiting to be rediscovered.”

    Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.
    Inundation of Gulf of Suez from 20,000 to 6500 BP. Credit: Dobson et al.

    As climate change continues to reshape our own coastlines, the lessons from Berenice Aquaterra could be more relevant than ever—offering a glimpse into how ancient humans adapted to a world in flux and how much we’ve yet to uncover about our shared origins.

    University of Kansas

    Jerome Eric Dobson, Giorgio Spada, Gaia Galassi, Alternative crossings into and out of Africa since 30,000 BP. Comptes Rendus. Géoscience, Volume 357 (2025), pp. 1-24. dx.doi.org/10.5802/crgeos.273

    Cover Image Credit: Satellite image of Berenice, an ancient port, on the Red Sea coast. A KU researcher asserts new information about Berenice should prompt reexamination of migration into the Nile Valley before or during the Last Glacial Maximum. Coral reefs near Foul Bay might hold more clues, according to Jerome Dobson. NASA

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  • Could we ever build a transatlantic tunnel?

    Could we ever build a transatlantic tunnel?

    The vision sounds irresistible: step onto a train in New York, and emerge 54 minutes later in London, having traveled through a tunnel beneath the Atlantic Ocean. This kind of travel is described in some recent proposals. But is a trans-Atlantic tunnel really possible or the stuff of science fiction?

    The short answer: It’s probably not possible with current technology.

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  • NASA spacecraft snaps a rare photo of Mars and its moons together

    NASA spacecraft snaps a rare photo of Mars and its moons together

    On its long journey to the outer solar system, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft made a planned detour — and seized a striking photo opportunity. 

    In a single frame, the uncrewed Europa Clipper caught Mars alongside both of its tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, as they waltzed through space, all glowing in infrared light. 

    The image, presented below, is more than a pretty picture. It offers a rare look at a planetary trio not often seen together, and it provided mission engineers a crucial chance to fine-tune the spacecraft’s thermal camera as it zipped past the Red Planet.

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    A star may have survived partial black hole spaghettification

    From about 560,000 miles away — more than twice the distance between Earth and the moon — Europa Clipper’s infrared camera snapped 200 individual frames over the course of 20 minutes on Feb. 28. The frames were later stitched together to reveal the glowing heat signatures of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos.

    The result is a surreal view: Mars dominates the center, faintly surrounded by image-processing artifacts. At the upper left, Deimos appears as a tiny glowing dot. Closer in is Phobos, Mars’ larger and innermost moon. To make the dim moons visible — each about 250 times fainter than Mars — engineers brightened the image.

    Mashable Light Speed

    Left:
    From a half-million miles away, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft captured Mars with its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in space.
    Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / SwRI

    Right:
    To see a labeled view, swipe the slider above to the left.
    Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / SwRI

    Visible on the planet itself is a dark patch near the top, marking the frigid northern polar cap, where temperatures dip to about -190 degrees Fahrenheit. A circular region shows Elysium Mons, one of Mars’ giant volcanoes.

    The Martian moons are rarely seen together, let alone with their host planet. The first time Phobos and Deimos were both caught on camera was in November 2009, when the Mars Express orbiter snagged the unprecedented image, according to the European Space Agency. The portrait, which showcased the duo lined up, one behind the other, took years of planning, precise knowledge of their orbits, and some lucky viewing geometry.

    Scientists know relatively little about Phobos and Deimos, two of the smallest known moons in the solar system. Both are “blacker than coal and look like battered potatoes,” according to ESA. Phobos is the larger of the pair, about 14 miles wide, and circles Mars three times a day. Deimos, just seven or eight miles across, orbits Mars every 30 hours.

    Right now researchers aren’t sure where the moons came from, and it remains a source of mystery. Some believe they could have been asteroids captured in orbit around the Red Planet. Others think they could be chunks of Mars itself, blown out by a giant collision billions of years ago. 

    Phobos and Deimos

    The Mars Express orbiter caught Phobos, in the foreground, and Deimos on camera together for the first time in November 2009. The right side showcases the raw image; left, after processing.
    Credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

    The new Europa Clipper image was taken using one of the spacecraft’s thermal sensors, designed to detect heat instead of visible light. This tool will later be used to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, a frozen world believed to harbor a salty ocean beneath its icy crust — and possibly the conditions to support life. The instrument — the Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System, or E-Themis — should help identify places where Europa’s inner ocean might be interacting with its frozen shell — a key clue in the search for alien life.

    The spacecraft used Mars’ gravity in March to tweak its path, a maneuver known as a gravity assist, on its way to the outer solar system. That close encounter provided a convenient moment to test instruments — and admire Earth’s ruddy neighbor. Just a few days later, on March 12, another spacecraft made a pop-in for a gravity assist and some photos. That robotic spacecraft is on the European Hera mission to study the asteroid NASA intentionally crashed into three years ago.

    Europa Clipper launched from Florida in October 2024 and is scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030. Once there, it will perform nearly 50 flybys of Europa, gathering detailed measurements of its surface, interior, and chemistry. If NASA finds that Europa is a habitable place, a second Europa mission could return to determine if there are indeed any inhabitants. 

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  • This Chinese AI model can accurately classify celestial objects

    This Chinese AI model can accurately classify celestial objects

    The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

    What’s the story

    A team of scientists from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a neural network-based method for large-scale classification of celestial objects.
    The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, implies the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in modern astronomy.
    The new model can accurately classify stars, galaxies, and quasars by processing both morphological and spectral energy distribution (SED) features simultaneously.

    How the model works

    Traditional spectroscopic observations, while precise, are time-consuming and resource-intensive.
    On the other hand, photometric imaging is more efficient but can lead to ambiguities when classifying objects based solely on morphological or SED features.
    For example, the high-redshift quasars and stars both appear as point sources in pictures, making them hard to distinguish.
    The new neural network model overcomes these challenges by integrating data from different sources for accurate classification.

    Model classified over 27M celestial sources

    The neural network model was trained using spectroscopically-confirmed sources from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 17.
    This training provided a foundation for classification.
    When applied to the fifth data release of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), the model successfully classified more than 27 million celestial sources brighter than r = 23 magnitude across some 1,350 square degrees of sky.

    Accuracy tested on Gaia and GAMA data

    The model’s performance was validated through extensive testing.
    When applied to 3.4 million Gaia sources with a significant proper motion or parallax—traits generally unique to stars—the model correctly identified 99.7% as stellar objects.
    A similar success rate was seen with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly Data Release 4, where around 99.7% of sources were accurately classified as either galaxies or quasars.

    Model can correct misclassifications in existing catalogs

    The research also found that the neural network model could correct the misclassifications in existing catalogs.
    Random checks revealed some objects, which were visually identifiable as galaxies but mislabeled as stars in SDSS, were correctly reclassified by the AI.
    This highlights the potential of this new method to improve current astronomical databases and enhance our understanding of celestial objects.

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  • “World’s Rarest Elephant”: Meet Motty, The Only Known Elephant Hybrid

    “World’s Rarest Elephant”: Meet Motty, The Only Known Elephant Hybrid

    Motty remains the only confirmed hybrid between an African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Although the calf tragically died just days after birth, his unique descent earned him the rare distinction of being named the “world’s rarest elephant” by Guinness World Records.

    Motty was born on July 11, 1978, at Chester Zoo in the UK and named after its founder, George Mottershead. As proven by tissue samples taken from the tiny male calf, this individual was the result of interbreeding between Jumbolino, a male bull African elephant, and Sheba, a female Asian elephant.

    When the matriarch Sheba fell first pregnant, there wasn’t much doubt over the paternity of the individual; Jumbolino was said to be the only male elephant in the shared enclosure. However, there were still significant doubts about whether it would be possible for the two different species to produce viable offspring.

    It would be impossible for these two species to mate in the wild given the vast geographical distance that separates their natural ranges on two different continents. Furthermore, these two animals are not just different species; they are different genera, meaning they are relatively distant from each other on the genetic tree too. 

    African elephants and Asian elephants bear some distinct physical differences. The former species is larger, growing up to 3 to 4 meters (9.8 to 13.1 feet) from shoulder to toe, while the latter will only grow 2 to 3.5 meters (6.5 to 11.4 feet) tall. African elephants also have significantly larger ears, perfectly evolved for allowing heat to radiate away from the body in the savannah, and tend to have more wrinkly skin. 

    Just as you’d expect with a hybrid of the two, Motty had features of both his mother and father. His head shape and larger ears were clearly those of an African elephant, but he also had five toenails on the front feet and four on the hind, which is a characteristic of Asian elephants.

    Unfortunately, Motty had a tough start in life. Born six weeks premature, he was extremely underweight and required intensive veterinarian care from the get-go. Just 10 days after he was born, he succumbed to necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious gastrointestinal problem in newborn animals. He died on July 21, 1978. A necropsy later showed that he was suffering from a severe E. coli infection in both his colon and the umbilical cord. 

    Upon his death, the body of this unique individual was reportedly preserved by a private collection and it is said to be kept at the Natural History Museum in London.

    Motty is a true individual, the likes of which have never been seen since. However, there are plenty of other examples of interspecies romping and hybridization elsewhere in the animal kingdom. There is the sought-after beefalo and the uber-cute dog-fox combo, not to mention the surprising number of wholphins that swim the world’s oceans.

    An earlier version of this story was published in 2023.

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  • Solar Power Producing Heliostats Could Get A Night Job Finding Asteroids

    Solar Power Producing Heliostats Could Get A Night Job Finding Asteroids

    Mirrors that focus sunlight to produce electricity have been vastly outpaced by photovoltaic panels, but one scientist thinks they could have a second application, spotting asteroids at night.

    Solar thermal power has a great advantage over solar panels on roofs or in most solar farms: it can continue to produce electricity after the Sun has gone down. The mirrors known as heliostats at solar thermal facilities focus sunlight to heat fluids to very high temperatures to drive turbines. The more common version involves fields of heliostats reflecting light on a central tower through which the fluids move. The materials stay hot enough to continue spinning the turbines after dark, depending on the fluid and the turbine sometimes all night.

    That advantage has not been sufficient to allow solar thermal to compete commercially with photovoltaics’ lower price and flexibility of location, although there are reasons to think that may change.  However, while the turbines keep working at night, the mirrors don’t, which is something Dr John Sandusky of Sandia National Labs wants to change.

    “The heliostat fields don’t have a night job. They just sit there unused. The nation has an opportunity to give them a night job at a relatively low cost for finding near-Earth objects,” Sandusky told the Sandia newsletter LabNews. “If we knew ahead of time that an asteroid was coming and where it might hit, we’d have a better chance to prepare and reduce the potential damage.”

    Sandusky’s first test of the idea was conducted with just one of the 212 heliostats at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility. Using software already built to move the heliostat in daylight, he had it sweep backwards and forwards around once a minute and collected the light it focused on the tower.

    Current asteroid-hunting techniques produce images of areas of the sky tracked to follow the apparent motion of the stars. Asteroids, or anything else, moving relative to the stars, show up as streaks that computers can recognize.

    We’ve become a lot better at detecting objects moving through the inner Solar System in recent years, which is why all three interstellar visitors we have detected have been since 2017. We already know the Vera C Rubin Observatory can take it up a notch further. Nevertheless, there is still room for further improvement, since we lack the capacity to watch the whole sky at once. Moreover, if we had a different method for finding objects like this, the giant telescopes currently used for the purpose could be redeployed to research roles.

    Sandusky anticipates that the relative motion of an asteroid compared to the stars will lead to a detection when the light of one is reflected off the heliostat. 

    “Solar towers collect a million watts of sunlight,” Sandusky said. “At night, we want to collect a femtowatt, which is a millionth of a billionth of a watt of power of sunlight that’s scattered off of asteroids.”

    Sandusky’s test run using the single heliostat did not find an asteroid, but he didn’t really expect it would. Instead, he wanted to prove it could be moved at the appropriate rate and reflect starlight to the instruments, and he has claimed success. He presented the results to a conference last year and published a paper, but is now seeking wider input on whether the idea has potential and how his proposed approach could improve. “We want to hear from our peers in optics and the asteroid hunting community,” Sandusky said. “Getting peer feedback provides an opportunity to understand what the concerns are about how this technology will work.”

    Ironically, the basis for this idea comes from a question Sandusky was asked twenty years ago about the potential to use heliostats for imaging. “No. They’re not high enough optical quality to form an image,” he replied at the time. Nevertheless, the question lingered and it occurred to him there were parallels between the reflections of an object moving relative to the stars and frequency shifts used in radio communication.

    “We have very precise methods for measuring frequency,” Sandusky said. “Even frequency changes as small as one-one-millionth of one cycle per second are measurable thanks to frequency standards that can be commercially procured and locked to references like GPS signaling. I knew it was possible to measure the very small rate differences of an asteroid passing relative to the stars.”

    “If I can map all of the stars to one frequency, anything moving relative to the stars will appear at a neighboring frequency but still be separable,” he concluded. Having demonstrated the precise speed control required is possible, and that heliostats can reflect the stars, he’s ready to move on to try to find asteroids.

    A stepping stone would be to have the heliostat reflect a part of the sky where a bright suitable object is known to pass, to see if it can be found this way. From there, one could chase smaller known objects, and eventually seek those not yet known. 

    Sandusky also has ideas for related tasks that could expand heliostats’ nighttime uses, such as for detecting lost spacecraft, particularly orbiting between Earth and Moon, such as the one that hit the Moon in 2022. “Orbits near the moon can be difficult to track from the ground,” he said.

    It’s unlikely there will be enough of a market to use heliostats in this way to substantially shift the economics of solar thermal projects when competing against other sources of energy, but every little bit helps.

    The idea was published in Unconventional Imaging, Sensing and Adaptive Optics, as part of the proceedings of the Optical Engineering and Applications conference.

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  • Astronomers discover ‘super-Earth’ 35 light-years away, sparking hope for life beyond our solar system

    Astronomers discover ‘super-Earth’ 35 light-years away, sparking hope for life beyond our solar system

    Further in-depth analysis, meticulously combining data from TESS with high-precision observations from powerful ground-based instruments, led to the exciting confirmation of a fourth planet (L 98-59 e) and, most notably, a fifth planet, L 98-59 f. This newly confirmed super-Earth, estimated to be nearly three times the mass of our own planet, receives a similar amount of energy from its host star as Earth does from the Sun, placing it firmly within the zone where liquid water, a cornerstone of life as we know it, could theoretically exist.

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  • Experts warn hidden earthquake threat beneath North America could strike at any moment – MSN

    1. Experts warn hidden earthquake threat beneath North America could strike at any moment  MSN
    2. Tintina Fault in the Yukon prone to large quakes, study reveals  Juneau Empire
    3. Study finds fault near Dawson capable of powerful earthquakes  96.1 The Rush
    4. Ancient Canadian fault could produce major earthquakes in the future  The Weather Network
    5. Hidden earthquake timebomb discovered near North America could explode  Daily Mail

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