News Feeds

A research group has revealed fundamental insights into anode-free solid-state batteries, paving the way for efforts to improve their manufacturability.

Scientists are designing a satellite and instruments capable of detecting space debris as small as 1 centimeter, less than one-half inch. Debris that small, which cannot currently be detected from the ground, can damage satellites and other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

If you’ve ever looked at Mars through a telescope, you probably noticed its two polar ice caps. The northern one is made largely of water ice—the most obvious sign that Mars was once a wetter, warmer world. A team of researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) used that ice cap to make surprising discoveries about it and what it tells us about Mars’s interior.

According to Adrien Broquet and a team of DLR planetary scientists, the northern polar cap on Mars is quite young. They found this out by applying techniques used to measure what ice sheets on Earth do to its surface. The effect that widespread glaciation has is called “glacial isostatic adjustment,” and it’s still happening in places such as Scandinavia. Essentially, it’s a constant movement of land as Earth’s surface deforms in response to the weight of ice. The rate of deformation depends on the specific characteristics of the underlying mantle.

Large areas of our planet have been covered at times by thick glacial sheets. The last time this occurred was during a glacial period that ended about 11,700 years ago. Those sheets “weighed down” the surface, compressing it. As the glaciers melted, the surface began to rise back up in a process called “isostatic rebound”. The rate of both depression and the subsequent rising motion tells something about Earth’s interior, particularly the mantle. Think of pushing down on a sponge and then watching as it expands when you take your hand away.

Mars is permanently covered by water ice at its north pole. The ice sheet here is approximately 1000 kilometres in diameter and up to three kilometres thick, and its load depresses the rocky crust beneath. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, NASA MGS MOLA Science Team Studying a Rebounding Ice Cap

Broquet and his team decided to measure glacial isostatic rebound on Mars under the northern ice cap. It’s about 1,000 kilometers wide and three kilometers thick. They studied its formation by combining models of the planet’s thermal evolution with calculations of glacial isostatic adjustment, along with gravity, radar, and seismic observations.

The team concluded that the Martian northern polar cap is quite young, and it’s depressing the ground underneath. “We show that the ice sheet pushes the underlying ground into the mantle at a rate of up to 0.13 millimetres per year,” said Broquet. That’s a fairly small deformation, according to team member Ana-Catalina Plesa. “The small deformation rates indicate that the upper mantle of Mars is cold, highly viscous and much stiffer than Earth’s upper mantle,” she said.

Understanding Planetary Construction

So, how can measurements of ice weighing down planetary surfaces tell us so much? Remember that rocky planets like Earth and Mars are in constant states of change. Those changes can range from short-lived events like volcanic eruptions to long-lived ones like Ice Ages. Each alteration affects the surface, as does the rate at which the surface deforms and “bounces back”. Earth scientists use techniques such as the study of glacial isostatic adjustment to probe deep beneath the surface to understand the characteristics of those layers.

When ice weighs down the surface, the amount of depression depends on the mantle’s viscosity. That’s a measure of how much the mantle’s rocky materials resist flowing. Earth’s mantle rocks are more than a trillion times more viscous than asphalt. They still deform, however, and flow over geological timescales of millions of years. Using radar data and other methods to study the rate of depression and rebound of Earth’s surface, scientists can find the mantle viscosity. As it turns out, when you apply the same methods to Mars, it presents some surprises, including a seemingly cold north pole and the recently volcanically active equatorial regions.

Estimating Mars’s Interior

To understand why the Mars interior is the way it is, you need estimates of Mars’s gravity field (which varies), seismic measurements made by the InSight lander, and other data. They all help to determine rates of depression and rebound on the Red Planet’s surface and interior. The result? It appears that the surface under the Martian north pole has not had nearly enough time to fully deform under the weight of the ice. Broquet’s group estimates that Mars’s north pole surface area is currently subsiding at rates of up to 0.13 millimeters per year. For it to be that slow, the underlying upper mantle viscosity tells us that the Martian interior is quite cold.

The team’s measurements indicate the ice cap is young—well more than any other large-scale feature seen on the planet. It’s most likely to be between 2 and 12 million years.

Artist illustration of Mars Insight Lander. It measured seismic activity on Mars, giving further insight into the subsurface structure. Credit: NASA/JPL

Other places on the planet may not be quite so frigid as the polar regions. “Although the mantle underneath Mars’s north pole is estimated to be cold, our models are still able to predict the presence of local melt zones in the mantle near the equator,” said study co-author Doris Breuer.

These findings represent the first time that scientists found glacial isostatic adjustment operating on another rocky planet. Future missions to Mars could include more instruments to measure the rise and fall of the Martian surface in response to glaciation.

For More Information

Mars’s Northern Ice Cap is Young with a Cold, Stiff Mantle Beneath
Glacial Isostatic Adjustment Reveals Mars’s Interior Viscosity Structure

The post Mars’s Northern Ice Cap is Surprisingly Young appeared first on Universe Today.

Our Solar System is in motion and cruises at about 200 kilometres per second relative to the center of the Milky Way. During its long journey, it has passed through different parts of the galaxy. Research shows that the Solar System passed through the Orion star-forming complex about 14 million years ago.

The Orion star-forming complex, also known as the Orion molecular cloud complex, is part of a larger structure called the Radcliffe Wave (RW). The RW was discovered very recently, in 2020. It’s a large, coherent structure that also moves through the galaxy. It’s a wave-like structure of gas and dust that holds many star-forming regions, including the well-known Orion complex and the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds. It’s almost 9000 light-years long and is within the Milky Way’s Orion arm.

The environment in the RW and the Orion complex is more dense, and when the Solar System passed through it, the greater density compressed the Sun’s heliosphere. This allowed more interstellar dust to enter the Solar System and reach Earth. According to new research, this affected Earth’s climate and left its mark on geological records.

The research, “The Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe wave during the middle Miocene,” was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The lead author is Efrem Maconi, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna.

“We are inhabitants of the Milky Way.”

João Alves, professor of astrophysics, University of Vienna

“As our Solar System orbits the Milky Way, it encounters different Galactic environments with varying interstellar densities, including hot voids, supernova (SN) blast wavefronts, and cold gas clouds,” the authors write. “The Sun’s passage through a dense region of the interstellar medium (ISM) may impact the Solar System in several ways.”

14 million years ago, Earth was in the Middle Miocene Epoch. Notable events took place in the Miocene. Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, mountains were actively building on multiple continents, and the Messinan Salinity Crisis struck the Mediterranean. Overall, the Miocene is known for the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO). During the MMCO, the climate was warm, and the tropics expanded.

However, the Miocene is also known for something else: the Middle Miocene Disruption (MMD). The MMD followed the MMCO and saw a wave of extinctions strike both terrestrial and aquatic life. It happened around 14.8 to 14.5 million years ago, which is in line with when the Solar System passed through the Radcliffe Wave and the Orion complex.

The authors of the new research say the Solar System’s passage through the RW and the Orion complex could be responsible for the MMD.

“Imagine it like a ship sailing through varying conditions at sea,” explains lead author Efrem Maconi in a press release. “Our Sun encountered a region of higher gas density as it passed through the Radcliffe Wave in the Orion constellation.”

The researchers used data from the ESA’s Gaia mission, along with spectroscopic observations, to accurately determine when the Solar System passed through the RW. By tracing the movement of 56 open clusters in the RW, the researchers traced the motion of the RW and compared it with the Solar System’s movement. Their work shows that the two intersected from 18.2 to 11.5 Myr ago. The closest approach occurred between 14.8 and 12.4 Myr ago.

This figure from the study shows an overview of the Radcliffe wave and selected clusters in a heliocentric Galactic Cartesian frame. The Sun is placed at the center, and its position is marked with a golden-yellow ?. The red dots denote the molecular clouds and tenuous gas bridge connections that constitute the Radcliffe wave. The blue points represent the 56 open clusters associated with the region of the Radcliffe wave that is relevant to this study. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of stars in the clusters. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

This period of time coincides with the MMD. “Notably, this period coincides with the Middle Miocene climate transition on Earth, providing an interdisciplinary link with paleoclimatology,” the authors write. The correlation is striking, and the researchers say that the influx of interstellar dust shifted Earth’s climate.

“This discovery builds upon our previous work identifying the Radcliffe Wave,” says João Alves, professor of astrophysics at the University of Vienna and co-author of the study. Alves was the lead author of the 2020 paper presenting the discovery of the RW.

“Remarkably, we find that the past trajectories of the Solar System closely approached (dSun–cloud within 50 pc) certain selected clusters while they were in their cloud phase, hinting at a probable encounter between the Sun and the gaseous component of the Radcliffe wave,” the researchers write in their paper.

“We passed through the Orion region as well-known star clusters like NGC 1977, NGC 1980, and NGC 1981 were forming,” Alves said in the press release. “This region is easily visible in the winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Look for the Orion constellation and the Orion Nebula (Messier 42)—our solar system came from that direction!”

This image shows the well-known Orion Nebula in the center and the less well-known NGC 1977 (The Running Man Nebula) on the left. NGC 1977 was still forming when the Solar System passed through this region about 14 million years ago. Image Credit: By Chuck Ayoub – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57079507

The increased dust that reached Earth during its passage through the RW could have had several effects. The interstellar medium (ISM) contains radioisotopes like 60Fe from supernova explosions, which could have created anomalies in Earth’s geological record. “While current technology may not be sensitive enough to detect these traces, future detectors could make it possible,” Alves suggests.

More critically, the dust could’ve created global cooling.

A 2005 paper showed that Earth passes through a dense giant molecular cloud (GMC) approximately every 100 million years. “Here we show that dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust
accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere during the Solar System’s immersion into a dense GMC,” those researchers wrote. They explained at the time that there was no evidence linking these passages with severe glaciations in Earth’s history.

This new research from Maconi et al. is shedding some light on the issue.

“While the underlying processes responsible for the Middle Miocene Climate Transition are not entirely identified, the available reconstructions suggest that a long-term decrease in the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide concentration is the most likely explanation, although large uncertainties exist,” Maconi said.

This figure shows when the Solar System passed through different star-forming clouds in the Radcliffe Wave. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

“However, our study highlights that interstellar dust related to the crossing of the Radcliffe Wave might have impacted Earth’s climate and potentially played a role during this climate transition. To alter the Earth’s climate the amount of extraterrestrial dust on Earth would need to be much bigger than what the data so far suggest,” says Maconi. “Future research will explore the significance of this contribution.”

With more research to come in the future, there’s most likely more to the story. In any case, one conclusion seems clear: the Earth passed through a region of dense gas that fits in with the Middle Miocene Disruption.

Research like this, when shallowly read, becomes cannon fodder in the tiresome debate about global climate change. The authors are quick to nip that in the bud.

“It’s crucial to note that this past climate transition and current climate change are not comparable since the Middle Miocene Climate Transition unfolded over timescales of several hundred thousand years. In contrast, the current global warming evolution is happening at an unprecedented rate over decades to centuries due to human activity,” Macon said.

Click on the image to explore an interactive tool showing our Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe Wave. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

The researchers also point out some weaknesses in their results. “Our results are based on the tracebacks of the orbits of the Solar System and of the clusters associated with the Radcliffe wave. As noted throughout the text, this method requires some approximations due to inherent difficulties in modelling the past structure and evolution of the gas,” they clarify. They explain that their tracebacks should be thought of as a first approximation of their movements.

However, if they’re right, their work draws another fascinating link between our planet, its climate, and life’s struggle to persist with much larger-scale events beyond Earth.

“Notably, our estimated time interval for the Solar System’s potential location within a dense ISM region (about 14.8–12.4 Myr ago for a distance of 20–30 pc from the center of a gas cloud) overlaps with the Middle Miocene climate transition,” the researchers explain. “During this period, the expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet and global cooling marked Earth’s final transition to persistent large-scale continental glaciation in Antarctica.”

“We are inhabitants of the Milky Way,” said Alves. “The European Space Agency’s Gaia Mission has given us the means to trace our recent route in the Milky Way’s interstellar sea, allowing astronomers to compare notes with geologists and paleoclimatologists. It’s very exciting.” In the future, the team led by João Alves plans to study in more detail the Galactic environment encountered by the Sun while sailing through our Galaxy.

• Press Release: The Galactic Journey of our Solar System
• New Research: The Solar System’s passage through the Radcliffe wave during the middle Miocene
• Previous Research: A Galactic-scale gas wave in the solar neighbourhood
• Previous Research: Passing through a giant molecular cloud: ‘‘Snowball’’ glaciations produced by interstellar dust

The post The Solar System is Taking a Fascinating Journey Through the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

Changes in Earth’s orbit drive long-term glacial cycles, but a new forecast suggests this ancient pattern is being disrupted for tens of thousands of years due to human-induced global warming

Blue Zones, places home to an unusual number of centenarians, are looked to for their secrets to living healthier lives – but are they even real?

Recent advances in astronomical observations have found a significant number of extrasolar planets that can sustain surface water, and the search for extraterrestrial life on such planets is gaining momentum. A team of astrobiologists has proposed a novel approach for detecting life on ocean planets. By conducting laboratory measurements and satellite remote sensing analyses, they have demonstrated that the reflectance spectrum of floating vegetation could serve as a promising biosignature. Seasonal variations in floating vegetation may provide a particularly effective means for remote detection.

Strong, lightweight, superelastic, and able to function across a range of temperatures, this newly developed alloy could be a game-changer for space exploration and medical technology.

A twist you'll never see coming: a breakthrough in understanding the relationship between chirality and electric flow at a microscopic level may help us develop chiral information technology.

Perovskite solar cells could last ten times longer thanks to new research, which suggests alumina nanoparticles significantly enhance the lifespan and stability of these high-efficiency energy devices.

Researchers have developed a new technique to make glass water-repellent, a feature that could improve safety in vehicles, reduce cleaning costs for buildings and enhance filtration systems. The research shows how an innovative and non-toxic process using ultrasonic sound waves can alter the surface of glass, making it either hydrophobic (water resistant) or electrically charged.

A team has shown that artificial photosynthesis is feasible using organic materials. Using the technique, they successfully synthesized useful organic compounds, including pharmaceutical materials, and 'green' hydrogen, which is a next-generation renewable energy source, from waste organic materials using sunlight and water. Their findings are expected to contribute to the production of medicinal and agricultural chemicals as well as sustainable energy initiatives.

Different analytical methods have a significant impact on the results of scientific studies. This is demonstrated by a study conducted by an international research team. In the study, more than 300 scientists compared 174 independent analyses of the same dataset. The findings reveal that different methods can lead to highly variable conclusions.

In the rapidly developing contest between human creativity and artificial intelligence algorithms, professional artists still have an edge in producing more creative AI-assisted artwork than the AI programs themselves or novice artists, according to new research.

A multi-institutional research team has clarified the energy levels of color centers at the SiO2/SiC interface, paving the way toward the development of scalable quantum technologies that use them as single-photon emitters.

A multi-institutional research team has clarified the energy levels of color centers at the SiO2/SiC interface, paving the way toward the development of scalable quantum technologies that use them as single-photon emitters.

Researchers developed a new optimized printing approach that could enable super-resolution 3D direct laser writing (DLW) of microlenses, photonics crystals, micro-optical devices, metamaterials and more.

Researchers developed a new optimized printing approach that could enable super-resolution 3D direct laser writing (DLW) of microlenses, photonics crystals, micro-optical devices, metamaterials and more.

A new AI-based system for analyzing images taken over time can accurately detect changes and predict outcomes, according to a new study. The system's sensitivity and flexibility could make it useful across a wide range of medical and scientific applications.

How do rogue planetary-mass objects -- celestial bodies with masses between stars and planets -- form? An international team of astronomers has used advanced simulations to show that these enigmatic objects are linked to the chaotic dynamics of young star clusters.