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Category: space

Scientists at the University of Surrey have made a breakthrough in eco-friendly batteries that not only store more energy but could also help tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Lithium-CO₂ ‘breathing’ batteries release power while capturing carbon dioxide, offering a greener alternative that may one day outperform today’s lithium-ion batteries.

Until now, Lithium-CO₂ batteries have faced setbacks in efficiency — wearing out quickly, failing to recharge and relying on expensive rare materials such as platinum. However, researchers from Surrey have found a way to overcome these issues by using a low-cost catalyst called caesium phosphomolybdate (CPM). Using computer modelling and lab experiments, tests showed this simple change allowed the battery to store significantly more energy, charge with far less power and run for over 100 cycles.

The study, published in Advanced Science, marks a promising step toward real-world applications. If commercialised, these batteries could help cut emissions from vehicles and industrial sources — and scientists even imagine they could operate on Mars, where the atmosphere is 95% CO₂

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Astronomers have filled a large gap in knowledge about Mars’ water cycle. Their research on water percolating from surface to aquifer could change the picture of what early Mars was like, suggesting that less of the planet’s water may have been available to become rain and refill lakes and oceans.

Billions of years ago, water flowed on the surface of Mars. But scientists have an incomplete picture of how the Red Planet’s water cycle worked.

That could soon change after two graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin filled a large gap in knowledge about Mars’ water cycle — specifically, the part between surface water and groundwater.

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A team of solar physicists has released a new study shedding light on the fine-scale structure of the sun’s surface. Using the unparalleled power of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, built and operated by the National Solar Observatory (NSO) on Maui, scientists have observed, for the first time ever in such high detail, ultra-narrow bright and dark stripes on the solar photosphere, offering unprecedented insight into how magnetic fields shape solar surface dynamics at scales as small as 20 kilometers (or 12.4 miles).

The level of detail achieved allows us to clearly link these stripes to the ones we see in state-of-the-art simulations—so we can better understand their nature. These stripes, called striations and seen against the walls of solar convection cells known as granules, are the result of curtain-like sheets of magnetic fields that ripple and shift like fabric blowing in the wind.

As light from the hot granule walls passes through these magnetic “curtains,” the interaction produces a pattern of alternating brightness and darkness that traces variations in the underlying . If the field is weaker in the curtain than in its surroundings, it appears dark; if it is relatively stronger, it appears bright.

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is exploring a new region of interest the team is calling “Krokodillen” that may contain some of the oldest rocks on Mars. The area has been on the Perseverance science team’s wish list because it marks an important boundary between the oldest rocks of Jezero Crater’s rim and those of the plains beyond the crater.

“The last five months have been a geologic whirlwind,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from Caltech in Pasadena. “As successful as our exploration of ‘Witch Hazel Hill’ has been, our investigation of Krokodillen promises to be just as compelling.”

Named by Perseverance mission scientists after a mountain ridge on the island of Prins Karls Forland, Norway, Krokodillen (which means “the crocodile” in Norwegian) is a 73-acre (about 30-hectare) plateau of rocky outcrops located downslope to the west and south of Witch Hazel Hill.

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IN A NUTSHELL 🚀 The PHARAO mission will launch an atomic clock to the International Space Station to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity. ⏰ This clock aims to measure time with unprecedented precision, detecting variations even at levels equivalent to a one-meter altitude change. 🔬 Advances in atomic clock technology, including laser-cooling techniques, enhance

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Scientists from Helsinki, Durham and Toulouse universities used data from NASA’s Hubble and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescopes to simulate how the Milky Way and Andromeda will evolve over the next 10 billion years.

The two galaxies are currently heading towards each other at a speed of about 100 kilometers per second.

A collision would be devastating for both galaxies, which would be destroyed, leaving behind a spheroidal pile of stars known as an elliptical galaxy.

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